


Under My Umbrella

by SailorChibi



Series: 2020 Lovesquare Prompt Months [2]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Adrien Agreste Needs a Hug, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir Identity Reveal, Angst, Angst and Feels, Angst with a Happy Ending, Chat Noir Nino Lahiffe, Chloé Bourgeois Redemption, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Episode: s03 Chat Blanc, F/M, First Kiss, Gabriel Agreste is an Asshole, Gabriel Agreste | Papillon | Hawk Moth Identity Reveal, Getting Together, Guardian Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Hurt/Comfort, Identity Reveal, LadyNoir - Freeform, Ladybug Alya Césaire, Ladybug and Chat Noir against the world, Marinette Dupain-Cheng Finds Out First, Marinette Dupain-Cheng Needs a Hug, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug & Alya Cesaire Friendship, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug & Kagami Tsurugi Friendship, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug Identity Reveal, Marinette March, Marinette's girl squad is there for her, Mentioned Master Fu (Miraculous Ladybug), Miraculous Holder Alya Césaire, Miraculous Holder Chloé Bourgeois, Miraculous Holder Nino Lahiffe, Miraculous Team, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, POV Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Post Reveal, Post-Season/Series 03, Rabbit Miraculous, Secret Identity Reveal, Snake Miraculous, Spoilers for Season 3, Turtle Miraculous, adrienette - Freeform, i love the power ups i wish the show would give us more, kwami unification, lovesquare identity reveal, miraculous potions, miraculous power ups, pre reveal, space power up, supportive friends, well first kiss that they both remember
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-01
Updated: 2020-03-31
Packaged: 2021-02-27 22:42:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 31
Words: 51,688
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22973476
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SailorChibi/pseuds/SailorChibi
Summary: Now that she's the guardian, Marinette is crumbling under the weight of everything. It's too much for one girl to handle, particularly when her conflicting feelings for Adrien and Chat Noir aren't helping. But although it may not help her confusion, Chat Noir has always been there for her and she's leaning on him more than ever.31 connected prompts for Marinette March 2020.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Series: 2020 Lovesquare Prompt Months [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1619614
Comments: 640
Kudos: 1450





	1. Beginnings

**Author's Note:**

> This story was inspired by [a post I wrote on tumblr](https://tsuki-chibi.tumblr.com/post/190939724950/heres-what-i-want-for-the-lovesquare-in-seasons-4) that talked about what I personally wanted to see for ML seasons 4 and 5. I'm deviating slightly from that in some areas, but I'm trying to remain pretty faithful to it so there are a few spoilers in it.
> 
> I guess this qualifies as an "unofficial" entry for Marinette March, as you weren't supposed to focus on relationships and I think I'm physically incapable of writing fics where Marinette and Adrien don't end up together. Oh well, I'm sure no one here minds.
> 
> Chapters will be posted once daily to correspond with the Marinette March prompts.

Watching the rain through a porthole, Marinette discovered, was quite different from seeing it hit the glass above your bed, or even watching it from a beam on the Eiffel Tower. The rain was coming down hard and slanted, with enough of a wind to churn up waves. The force of the waves was enough to rock the boat, which Marinette had expected to be disorienting - but instead, she found it calming. If she closed her eyes, it felt sort of like those nights where she fell asleep on the couch curled up under her papa's big, strong arm, listening to the sound of his heartbeat.

Except it wasn't a heartbeat she was listening to right now. Aside from the rain against the glass, there was music. Luka was sitting somewhere behind her. His guitar was perched on his knee and he was plucking away at the strings, humming softly under his breath. He didn't seem to be playing any specific song that she could discern, but the melody was nevertheless pleasant. 

It should've been a happy moment. Or at least, a contented moment. Marinette pulled her knees up against her chest and rested her chin on her knees. Much like the weather, her mood was rather gloomy. It had been ever since she'd walked Master Fu to the train station six and a half weeks ago. The weight of being the new Guardian was heavy on her shoulders. She had hoped that by coming here to spend some time with Luka, she might be able to forget about it for at least a little while...

Instead, she was sitting here watching the rain and wondering if Chat Noir was out patrolling. It was his night, and that cat was just dumb enough to be out and about even though Hawkmoth had been quiet since his attempt at stealing all of the miraculous. Surely Chat would've realized that he could skip a night... or maybe he hadn't. Just like Marinette, Chat had been unusually somber. He didn't smile or crack jokes or even flirt as much as he used to. Either he was picking up on her mood and reflecting it, or he was feeling the pressure of it all too.

"Marinette?"

Marinette blinked, belatedly realizing that the sound of Luka's guitar had stopped and twisted around to look at him. "What? Sorry, I kind of got lost in my thoughts," she said. "Your song sounded really good, Luka."

He watched her for a moment, a small frown on his face. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Marinette said automatically. "What makes you ask?"

"I keep trying to find your song, but everything I play comes back... hmm, I'm not even sure what word to use," Luka said, sitting back and adjusting his hold on his guitar. "Melancholic, maybe."

The word struck deep, even though Marinette tried to hide it. She swallowed. "Maybe I'm just not a good muse," she said quietly. It was hard to deal with sometimes, how Luka could see so much and yet so little. He was very good at picking up at emotions, but of course he lacked the context behind it all. And she couldn't tell him even if she wanted to. There was too much, all tangled together into one ball: the burden of Ladybug, being the new Guardian, Adrien and Kagami, what to do about all of the miraculous holders who had been exposed, what to do about Chloé, how they were going to defeat Hawkmoth…

"I wouldn't agree with that," Luka said.

"You wouldn't?" Marinette said.

"Not at all. That's what music is for. To express emotion, from the good to the bad to the sad." Luka strummed his guitar lightly. "It's an outlet. Kind of like design."

"I haven't been able to design much lately," Marinette confessed. Whenever she sat down at her table, she got distracted by thoughts of everything else.

Luka made a soft sound of understanding. "Can I help?"

The question was kind, just as Luka was, and made Marinette smile even as she shook her head. "No, Luka. Thank you, but you can't." But there was one person who could. Someone who was closer to understanding what _Ladybug_ was going through than anyone else. The sudden, irresistible urge to see Chat Noir flooded through her.

"If you figure out a way that I can, let me know. I'm always here for you, Marinette." Luka smiled back, his blue eyes lighting up. 

"Thank you," Marinette said again, setting her feet on the floor. There was a moment during which she and Luka just looked at each other; he was close, she realized suddenly, closer than she had originally anticipated. In another life, this would have been the time where she leaned in, or maybe Luka would have, and they would have shared their first kiss. It would have been a new beginning. 

But Marinette didn't lean in, and so neither did Luka, because it didn't seem fair when she was still confused by everything. Luka would have borne her confusion with kindness and grace because that was the sort of person that Luka was, but she wasn't going to do that to him. He deserved better than that; he deserved better than _her_. As it was, she had already put him into danger. She had taken advantage of his kindness by crying in his arms; she'd come here today hoping for sanctuary from her life; she had not, she realized, come for anything more.

She stood up and saw understanding in Luka's face, closely followed by regret tempered by sadness. Marinette bit her lip, because once again she was hurting someone who didn't deserve it - but it would have been worse, she consoled herself, had she and Luka begun dating before she was ready. And perhaps she would never be ready, not for Luka, but that was a truth he deserved to know.

"Marinette," Luka said again.

"Yes?"

"You are..." Luka blew his breath out, dropping his gaze, fidgeting with a guitar string. Finally he said, very softly, "You're a good person. You deserve someone who loves you back, who can look at you and _see_ you. All of you. Don't settle for anything less."

Marinette didn't know what to say to that, because the only person who knew all of her was Tikki, but she appreciated the sentiment. She put her hand on Luka's shoulder and squeezed. Tempting though it was to press a kiss to his cheek, or maybe give him a hug, she refrained. It wouldn't be right. 

She left his room, shutting the door behind her, and heard the unmistakable sound of Juleka and Rose laughing to her left. She could join them, and they would not turn her away, but instead Marinette went up the stairs and emerged into the heart of the storm. She was soaked within seconds, her bangs sticking to her forehead, clothing plastered to her body. The wind whipped one of her sodden pigtails into her face. Marinette sighed and brushed her hair out of her face as she walked down the gangplank and back onto land. It felt strange not to have the ground moving beneath her feat as she ducked into an alley.

"Are you okay?" Tikki asked, poking her head out of Marinette's purse once they were sheltered from view.

"Actually... yes," Marinette said slowly, surprised at herself. She felt a little bit lighter. Just a little, but enough that she was able to discern the difference. The uncertainty over what might or might not be happening between her and Luka had been worse than she'd thought.

"You handled that very well. I'm proud of you," said Tikki, popping out of the purse.

Marinette smiled. "Thanks Tikki. Luka is a great guy, but..." She couldn't put her finger on it, because Luka really was a wonderful person, but it just didn't feel right. 

"But you still have your heart set on Adrien," Tikki said knowingly.

"Hmm," Marinette said, rather than respond to that. It wasn't even about Adrien, honestly. Though it hurt, she had been trying to make peace with the fact that Adrien and Kagami were dating now. Adrien was not hers, and might never be hers, and Marinette was slowly but surely coming to terms with that: Kagami was steady and sweet and deserved happiness as much as anyone else. So did Adrien, and if Kagami was the person he had chosen then Marinette was going to respect that.

But even then, Marinette still didn't think Luka was the right one for her.

"I want to go see Chat," Marinette went on. "Tikki, would you mind?"

"Of course not. I'm ready when you are!"

"Tikki, spots on!" Marinette called out. Tikki zipped into her earrings and red light washed over her, turning her into Ladybug. Immediately, she felt just a little more confident and surer in her decision.

Ladybug made her way to the roof of the building, where she paused just long enough to open her yoyo in order to track her errant partner. It wasn't a feature that just anyone could use; both she and Chat had had to manually enable the feature, and they had done so only for each other. She could see the danger in it now, because if Hawkmoth were to ever capture one of them he'd be able to track the other, but Ladybug was loathe to disable it. Sometimes during Chat's patrol nights, she would transform and open her yoyo and just lay in bed, watching his progress around their beloved city.

Tonight, the little black cat head was just passing the Louvre. That wasn't too far from where she was - if you were travelling by yoyo, of course. Ladybug snapped her yoyo shut, gripped the string, and swung her arm out.


	2. Letting Go

She caught up with Chat several blocks away form the Louvre. He was perched on the edge of a building, taking a breather. His blond hair was plastered to his head from the rain; his kitty ears were so waterlogged that they drooped, and his tail was a sodden dark line on the roof. Landing behind him, Ladybug was filled with an odd combination of affection and exasperation at the sorry sight. 

“I thought cats hated the rain,” she said, speaking a little louder to be heard over the rain.

Chat’s right kitty ear twitched at her voice and he twisted around to smile at her. “I can’t say I’m overly fond of it at the moment. What brings you out, Bugaboo?”

At one time, she would’ve chastised him for the nickname. Now, Ladybug merely let out a sigh. Her heart twisted as he grinned impishly, green eyes glinting. She mock-scowled in response as she came to sit at his side, fighting back the automatic smile that wanted to come out. She would never admit that she the once-hated nickname had actually grown on her to the point where she didn’t mind if he used it now. It would give him too much satisfaction.

“I was restless,” she said, deciding not to encourage him with an admonishment. He’d know she didn’t mean it. “And I figured you would be out, even though you shouldn’t be.”

“Eh, I’m not worried about getting sick,” Chat said with a shrug. “And my room was a little too empty. I was happy to come out and patrol.” He was looking out towards the city, his face shadowed, and so missed the worried frown that crossed her face. 

“You haven’t seen anything?” she asked. It was tempting – too tempting – to press for details about Chat’s life. She could now, technically. There was no one to tell her that she couldn’t. She was the Guardian. If she wanted to, she could even ask for Chat’s identity. He’d give it to her, she knew. He wouldn’t even hesitate. 

Maybe that was why she didn’t ask.

Chat shook his head. “Nope.”

“Hey!” Ladybug squeaked as his shake of the head sent a fine spray of water all over her.

He laughed at her even as he said, “Oops, sorry.”

“No you’re not,” Ladybug said, wiping the water from her face. A pointless move, considering that it was still pouring and the water he’d sprayed her with hadn’t actually made her any wetter. That was impossible by now.

“You’re right, I’m not,” Chat said shamelessly. 

“Brat,” Ladybug muttered with no heat, biting her lip to contain her smile – at least he looked happier now. She tipped her head back, looking up at the sky. Dark clouds hung over Paris and had for the past two days, though it had only begun raining around dinnertime. Last she’d heard, this storm was forecasted to continue for another day or two. She idly wondered if maybe this was foreshadowing their future. She hoped not. After the disaster of their last encounter with Hawkmoth, she and Chat could use some smooth sailing.

They sat in silence for a little while with only the sound of the rain for company. Then Ladybug let herself shift closer, until their thighs were pressed together and she could comfortably rest her head on Chat’s shoulder. They sat like this a lot now, and Chat had never seemed to mind. It was comforting to feel his warmth beneath her cheek and know that it was her kitty.

She had come so close to losing him.

“Did I ever tell you the ingredients to making the power-ups?” she asked.

Chat pretended to think about it. “Not that I recall.”

Of course she hadn’t. Ladybug cleared her throat. “Well, it all starts with a pot and a fire…” She kept her voice low, meant for his ears alone, and he listened intently without interrupting. 

This was information she wasn’t supposed to share and they both knew that. Master Fu had impressed that on her very early in her training. But Master Fu wasn’t here anymore, and sometimes Ladybug felt stuffed to bursting with all of the secrets she had to keep. She had to let some of them out – and for this, she couldn’t even confide in Tikki because there were some things that kwami weren’t meant to know.

She consoled herself with the thought that if something happened to her, Chat deserved to know. He _needed_ to know. She had already told him about the other miraculous and what each one could be used for, including the ones that they hadn’t had the chance to use in battle yet. With this, as in all things, her partner had proven that he was very easy to talk to.

“A tear of laughter?” Chat said when she was finished, amused.

“Yeah, I know. Not much chance of that happening right now.” Ladybug stuck her feet out in front of her, looking at the wet fabric. Tikki was going to want so many cookies as repayment, but Ladybug didn’t care if she had to spend all day tomorrow baking cookies. It was worth it.

“It could. If we had to,” Chat said, but he didn’t sound very convincing and she couldn’t blame him for that.

“If we had to,” she echoed anyway, looping her arm through his. The hot press of his arm against hers made her skin tingle. 

After a moment, Chat sighed. “I hate to admit it, but it’s getting late and I have a – a thing tomorrow morning.”

A thing? Ladybug wanted to ask, but she refrained. It wasn’t her business, she reminded herself. She knew that Chat had a job working for his father, though she wasn’t sure what he did. He had always been careful to avoid telling her too many details. At least, she assumed that’s what he was doing. But for all she knew, he might have a date.

“Okay. I should probably get home anyway,” she said, but she didn’t want to go. It occurred to her that it used to be Chat who had always lingered during their patrols or after battles, but now, much as she tried to hide it, it was her. These quiet moments with him were the only times when the world seemed to make sense anymore.

“Do you want to patrol tomorrow?” Chat asked, sliding his arm out from under hers. He bounced to his feet and offered her his hand, which she took, and effortlessly pulled her up too.

“Let’s skip a night. We could both use the sleep,” Ladybug replied, wondering if he’d kiss her hand. But he didn’t. He smiled at her, that warm, understanding smile that made her believe they could do anything, and squeezed her hand instead. He was just as drenched as she was, and his bangs hung low over his eyes. Ladybug stared at him.

And then Chat sneezed, and laughed. “You’re not wrong.”

“Don’t go getting sick,” Ladybug said, pulling her hand free to poke him in the side. “I need you!”

“No worries, My Lady. I’m always with you,” Chat said with another smile, reaching for his baton. “I’ll see you Monday night, then.” He extended the baton to the ground and used it to propel himself into the air and off the rain. She watched him go, but quickly lost sight of his dark suit against the equally dark clouds.

Ladybug sighed to herself and headed home. Alighting on her balcony, she cracked the window above her bed and crept inside, doing her best to keep from getting her bed wet. Her room was dark and quiet, exactly the way she liked it. She grabbed a towel and held it ready.

“Tikki, spots off!” she whispered. As soon as Tikki materialized, Marinette wrapped her in a towel and said, “I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay,” Tikki said, voice muffled by the towel as Marinette briskly rubbed her dry. 

“I shouldn’t have stayed out so long,” Marinette said, feeling guilty for her kwami’s bedraggled state – yet she didn’t regret spending that time with Chat, and she was sure it showed.

Tikki struggled free of the material, looking up at Marinette worriedly. “You should dry off too! You’re soaked!”

“Yeah…” Marinette fingered one of her dripping pigtails ruefully. Her clothing was still saturated from before she’d transformed. She released Tikki and stripped down, using the towel to dry herself off. She snuck her clothing into the bathroom to let it dry off, then crept back into her room.

“Marinette,” Tikki said as Marinette pulled on a pair of pajamas.

“What?”

“Chat Noir… are you falling in lo –”

“Don’t!” Marinette said sharply, jerking the top down so she could stare at Tikki. “Don’t finish that sentence, Tikki. Don’t even think it.”

“Because that would be okay,” Tikki said, very gently.

Marinette shook her head and undid her pigtails to dry her hair. “No. Remember Chat Blanc? Chat got akumatized because of me. We can’t be together that way; I won’t let that happen.” Her heart twisted. “I’m just… I’m letting go. Of both of them. I have to.”

“Marinette…” Tikki sighed, seeming like she wanted to say something else, but another glance at Marinette’s stern expression stopped her.

“I have to,” Marinette repeated, willing herself to believe that. It didn’t matter that Chat was the only one she felt she could rely on now. It didn’t matter that his unwavering support meant anything. It didn’t matter that her heart had begun to flutter when he smiled at her for too long – or maybe her heart had always done that, and she just hadn’t noticed. 

Nothing but Chat’s safety mattered – because if she lost him, Paris was lost.


	3. Vacation

An incoming text woke Marinette from a sound sleep the next morning. She muttered a complaint into her pillow even as she fumbled around until her hand came into contact with her phone. It had been close to 3am by the time she finally fell asleep, and she wasn’t impressed to see that it was just after 8am. Of course, seeing the name of the sender, the timing made sense.

“Who is it?” Tikki asked, yawning widely. 

“It’s Kagami. She wants to know if I want to meet up for orange juice,” Marinette said, rubbing her eyes. It was rare that Kagami was actually able to get an hour free from under her mother’s stern eye, and it was sort of touching that she was choosing to spend that precious free time with Marinette. So, although Marinette really wanted nothing more than to go back to sleep, she knew that it would be cruel to say no. 

“What time are you going?” Tikki knew, of course, that Marinette would be saying yes, and she rolled over to peer at the phone.

“Now.” Marinette typed out a response, then groaned and pushed herself up. The room spun when she was upright, and she put a hand to her head. At some point, she was really going to have to start catching up on sleep. 

Tikki said nothing, but closed her eyes and snuggled back down into the pillow – she could sleep until Marinette left, of course. Marinette shot her a dirty look as she made her way down the ladder. It must have been really nice to be a kwami that could just sleep for most of the day. Her envy only intensified when she got a good look in the mirror at the horrible state of her hair.

It took her about half an hour to do her hair, get dressed, and slather on enough make-up to hide the deepening circles under her eyes. A quick glance out the window told her that it was still pouring. Marinette opened up her closet doors and hesitated. There were two umbrellas sitting just inside. One was plain black and didn’t work very well, often snapping shut at the most inopportune of times. Most people would’ve thrown it into the garbage a long time ago.

Her hand hovered over the black handle for several seconds before clenching into a fist. Before she could second guess herself, Marinette grabbed the other umbrella. Previously a boring white, she had spent a long Sunday afternoon tediously hand-painting an ocean scene onto the fabric. She hadn’t used it since, having received the black umbrella not long after. But it was time.

Then she scooped Tikki into her purse and then left her room, heading down the stairs. The bakery was in full swing already; her papa was kneading bread and her maman was manning the cash register. A convenient slew of customers meant that she didn’t have to face either of her parent’s queries about what time she’d come out last night. Marinette escaped out the door and put her umbrella up.

Kagami wanted to meet at their favorite juice vendor. As Marinette approached she spotted her friend instantly, waiting at one of the outdoor tables beneath the canopy. The small smile that crossed Kagami’s face when she spotted Marinette was enough to make Marinette smile too; maybe going for juice wasn’t such a bad idea after all. She walked over to the table.

“Good morning,” Kagami said formally.

“Good morning,” Marinette said, resisting the urge to yawn. “Let’s get our juice and then sit.” She was hoping that the sugar from the juice would help to perk her up a bit.

“Sure.” Kagami stood and they made their way into the store. Once they had their orders, they found a spot outside at one of the tables and sat down. 

“So how’d you get the free time?” Marinette asked, taking a sip of her juice.

“My mother has a meeting. She was unaware that my English lesson was canceled today,” Kagami answered. “I have to be at my fencing lesson no later than 10am.”

Marinette nodded, wondering what that was like. Adrien and Kagami were in the same boat, really. Every moment of their time was scheduled. Marinette was busy too, but it was usually with stuff that she wanted to do – schoolwork and akuma battles and helping in the bakery aside, of course. She couldn’t imagine what it would be like to have her parents dictating what she was to do with every waking moment. 

It also made her wonder _how_ Adrien and Kagami could date. Unless maybe their parents had given the okay for that too? Perhaps their dates got scheduled now. Penciled in on the calendar. That would be awful. 

“That was a stroke of luck,” Marinette said, realizing Kagami was waiting for her response. “So… was Adrien busy today?”

A shadow flickered across Kagami’s face, there and gone so fast that Marinette nearly missed it entirely, before Kagami said, “Adrien and I are not dating, if that’s what you mean.”

Marinette choked a bit on her next sip. “Wait. You’re not? But you said –”

“I asked him out and Adrien said he was not ready yet. I took that to mean he might become ready shortly,” Kagami said. “But I’ve been thinking, and I don’t want to spend my time waiting around for someone. Even someone as nice and kind as Adrien.” She smiled fondly at the table, then sighed. “Besides, I think… I think Adrien is in love with someone else.”

“Surely not Chloé or Lila,” Marinette said before she could stop herself. It didn’t matter to her who Adrien was dating, she told herself. But really, she didn’t think Adrien and Chloé would be a good match. And Adrien deserved _way_ better than Lila.

“I don’t know for sure, but I don’t think so,” Kagami said. She looked at Marinette for a moment with a peculiar expression. For a moment, she seemed like she was going to say something else. 

“What?” Marinette asked finally.

Kagami slowly shook her head. “Nothing. The juice is especially good today, don’t you think?”

“Yeah,” Marinette said, wondering if she should pry. Kagami clearly had something on her mind. Then again, it was possible that Kagami was just feeling upset about Adrien. Marinette would be there for her if that was the case, but she wasn’t sure she was the right person for Kagami to confide in considering that not too long ago, the two of them had been interested in the same boy.

She finally changed the subject, asking Kagami about her fencing lessons. If there was one thing that Kagami enjoyed talking about, it was fencing. And it was nice to see how animated Kagami got when she talked about a new move that she was working on. Her whole face lit up. Marinette was perfectly content to sit there and listen, knowing that Kagami didn’t often get the chance to just talk like this.

“It’s time for me to go,” Kagami said at last, checking her phone. “I’ll get in trouble if I don’t.”

“That sucks,” Marinette said, pushing her bottom lip out. “I can walk you to where you’re going if you like.”

“No, that’s okay. I have an umbrella too… though it’s not nearly as pretty as yours.” Kagami looked admiringly at Marinette’s umbrella. Marinette blushed a bit.

“You like it? I did it myself,” she said, touching the still-damp fabric. “Thank goodness the paint was just as waterproof as the clerk told me it would be, or I would’ve had an awful mess on my hands.” 

“It’s beautiful. I like the colors,” Kagami said. “If you’d ever be willing to take a commission, let me know.”

“Why, what did you have in mind?”

“Something based around the elements,” Kagami replied quietly, and Marinette bit her lip.

“Let me think about it,” she said, equally soft, feeling awful. She knew how much Alya and Nino missed being Rena Rouge and Carapace; she was certain that Kagami, Luka, Max, Kim and even Chloé felt the same way, though of course she couldn’t exactly ask. 

Someday, when this was all over and Hawkmoth and Mayura were well and truly dealt with, Marinette was taking all of the miraculous holders on vacation. 

“Of course,” Kagami said with a tight smile. “You know, I heard that Adrien is over in the park doing a photoshoot. He’d probably relish the chance to see a friend right now.”

“He is?” Marinette said, more surprised that she legitimately hadn’t known that than she was that Adrien was so close.

“You should go see him,” Kagami said, standing. She opened up her plain black umbrella. “Goodbye, Marinette.”

“Bye,” Marinette said, tightening her grip on the handle of her own umbrella. It did look pretty next to Kagami’s. That decided her. On her way home, she was going to stop by the fabric store to pick up a white umbrella and red, yellow and blue paint. An umbrella representing air, water and fire wouldn’t be _too_ hard to do, and she wouldn’t accept a cent for it – Kagami deserved that much, at least.

She sat there for a minute longer, pondering over whether it was wise to go see Adrien. On the one hand, the smart thing to do would be to go home. But on the other hand, Adrien was still her friend and Kagami had a point. He sometimes had a hard time at his shoots, and he’d looked pretty tired last week. Maybe she should bring him a juice. It wasn’t very often he got the chance to have a treat like that, but it was unlikely they would say no if Marinette was the one bringing it, right?

Smiling to herself, she jumped up and scurried into the shop.


	4. Dough

Adrien was standing, much to Marinette's surprise, in the rain. The photographer and everyone clustered around him was safely underneath a canopy, but apparently they had decided not to grant poor Adrien that luxury. Even from where she was standing, Marinette could tell that his hair and clothing were soaked. It had to be uncomfortable - and frankly she was a little surprised that Gabriel Agreste was willing to allow his designs to get wet - but you would never have known Adrien’s discomfort from how smoothly he was following the photographer's directions. 

"That's it, Adrien! You are the spaghetti! _Be_ the dough!" Vincent shouted. "You are the very thing upon which the bowl of pasta is built!"

"What does that even mean?" Marinette muttered, baffled. Whatever it was, Adrien was evidently doing it perfectly as Vincent finally gave a loud exclamation and kissed his fingers.

"Perfect! Now, we must have Sofia on stage!" Vincent called out.

Adrien moved aside as a very beautiful girl took his place, heading back towards a temporary tent. Marinette skirted the crowd and managed to catch the Gorilla's eye; he was standing guard alongside the barriers. The Gorilla gave her a measuring look before nodding and beckoning her forward. She whispered her thanks as she slipped under the barrier and hurried towards the tent, clutching Adrien's jucice in her hand - though considering he was out in the rain, she reflected that she probably should've brought him something warm instead.

"Adrien?" Marinette called, letting her umbrella fall as she stepped into the tent.

"Marinette? Is that you?" Adrien said, sounding at once puzzled and pleased. "I'm back here."

She followed the sound of his voice and emerged into a small space that was crammed full of clothing. Adrien was sitting on a chair with a towel over his head, scrubbing at his hair. He let the towel fall as she grew near and smiled at her.

"Hi," he said.

"Hi," Marinette said, her heartrate quickening in spite of her best effort's to stay calm. She was letting Adrien go, she reminded herself. She had no other choice. Just because he wasn't with Kagami anymore didn't mean anything. Adrien was in love with _someone_. Even if Marinette had apparently jumped to the wrong conclusion by thinking that it was Kagami, she wasn't wrong about that part.

"What are you doing here?" Adrien asked, cocking his head. "Not that I mind when you visit me on shoots, but it's a miserable day to be out."

"I was having juice with Kagami. We thought you could use some," Marinette said, indicating the cup she held. "It's passionfruit-orange."

Adrien beamed. "Wow, thanks! That sounds delicious." He stretched out a hand. Marinette swallowed as their fingers brushed when she handed him the cup. Suddenly, the space felt entirely too small.

"Wet!" she blurted out.

"Huh?" Adrien said, blinking.

"Wet. You're - you're really wet," she said. "Why?"

Fortunately, Adrien was too kind to answer with the obvious. He sipped his juice and then said, "My father decided to take advantage of the elements. His latest theme is based around negative emotions. This outfit is supposed to represent grief, and he thought that the rain would give the whole thing the perfect edge."

"Negative emotions?" Marinette repeated, making a face. "In light of what happened not that long ago, isn't that kind of... um... tacky?" 

"Tell me about it," Adrien said with a grimace. "It feels like he's trying to capitilize on people's trauma. I hate it." He plucked gloomily at the hem of his wet shirt. "But I don't have much choice. I guess I'm just glad he didn't want me in the sex outfit."

Marinette choked on her own saliva. "S-sex outfit?!" she wheezed.

"Yeah, it's a whole big thing based off the seven sins," Adrien replied. "Uh… are you okay?"

"Fine. I'm f-fine," Marinette stuttered, forcibly wrenching her brain away from any images of _Adrien_ and _sex_. She definitely didn't need to be thinking about that, particularly when all she could think about seemed to be Adrien in black leather and bearing a terrifying ressemblance to Chat Noir.

Adrien shot her an odd look, but shrugged. "Anyway... I was kind of hoping the photo shoot would be canceled today. I could've used a chance to sleep in. But I guess it's just as well. Better real rain than standing underneath a hose while they try to make it look like rain."

Marinette stared at him for a moment. 

"What?" Adrien said.

"Nothing. I'm just mentally crossing model off my list of potential future occupations. I don't think I could put myself through everything that you do," she said.

"You get used to it," Adrien said with a shrug and a thin smile, and her heart went out to him. Because Adrien had never been given a choice about getting used to it; his father had decided that Adrien was going to be a model, and so a model Adrien was. It would be like if her own parents decided she was going to be a baker and refused to let her be a designer.

“I guess,” Marinette said finally, unable to think of anything else to say. She glanced around and found herself looking at a nearby rack of clothing. Now that she knew the inspiration behind the line was Hawkmoth’s akumas, everything looked garish and – dare she think it – tacky.

“I’ll be done here soon,” Adrien said. “Do you have any plans today?”

“Not really. I should go home and do some homework. Maybe take a nap.” Yeah right. As though that was going to happen.

“Would you maybe wanna grab some lunch? My treat.”

Marinette’s head snapped around so fast that she heard her neck crack. Adrien had dropped his gaze and was staring at the ground, one hand rubbing at the back of his neck. She had long ago figured out that he only did that when he was nervous… which meant that he was nervous right now. Adrien had asked her to lunch and was _nervous_ about it. Holy shit.

She must have been quiet too long, because Tikki jabbed her in the thigh. Marinette jumped and stammered out, “S-sure!”

“Great. I won’t be much longer if you don’t mind hanging around.” Adrien smiled and stood up. He glanced in the mirror and straightened his hair.

“Not at all,” Marinette said, a little dazedly. 

“Okay. Be right back.” He squeezed past her and left, which was good because Marinette’s knees were feeling a bit weak. She toddled over and sank down into the chair Adrien had vacated.

“Oh my god, Marinette! Adrien asked you out!” Tikki squealed, poking her head out of the purse. “That’s amazing!”

“It’s – it’s –” 

“It’s?” Tikki prompted, flying up in front of Marinette’s face.

“Horrible!” Marinette exclaimed.

Tikki blinked. “Come again?”

“Tikki! What does this mean? Kagami said Adrien is in love with someone else. Who could that be? Is he using me to get over his mystery girl?” Marinette hissed.

“Maybe it means Adrien is in love with you,” Tikki said gently.

It was Marinette’s turn to blink. Then she gave a shaky laugh. “What? No. No! That can’t be right. Adrien isn’t in love with me. He can’t be. Because –”

“Because you’re falling in love with Chat Noir.”

“Exactly,” Marinette said, then choked. “Wh-what?! No!”

“Marinette, I have no idea what you’re so upset about,” Tikki said.

“Adrien told someone who I am!” Marinette said, fighting to keep her voice low. “Remember? In the alternate timeline where Chat Blanc happened, Adrien figured out who I was because of that present and told someone.” And oh, how her heart had hurt when she’d figured that out. That had definitely put some cracks in the fantasy of Adrien that she’d built up in her head.

“Of course.” Tikki frowned intently. “But Marinette, that didn’t technically happen. You can’t blame Adrien for something that he never did, right?”

“I… I guess,” Marinette said, a little surprised. She had fully expected Tikki, who was so adamant that Ladybug’s identity remain a secret, to agree with her.

“All you’d have to do is make extra sure that Adrien doesn’t figure out who you are, but that would be a lot easier if you’re dating him. You could give him presents as you, not have to worry about getting into his bedroom to leave them!” Tikki went on.

“But… Tikki, I don’t want to have to hide who I am forever,” Marinette said, wringing her hands together. “If I marry someone, I want to be able to tell them the truth.”

Tikki gave her an exasperated look. “Adrien asked you out on _one date_ , Marinette. He didn’t ask for your hand in marriage! Stop putting the cart before the horse. You and Chat Noir could defeat Hawkmoth at any point. It could happen long before you ever get serious with someone.”

“That’s true,” Marinette said slowly. “So… you think I should go?”

“Absolutely. Unless…” Tikki’s expression turned sly. “You’ve got a cat-shaped reason _not_ to go.”

“Seriously?” Marinette said, frowning at her. She still wasn’t sure, but it was _not_ for the reason that Tikki was suggesting. She just didn’t want to get caught up between Adrien and his mystery girl.

Then again, she didn’t even know for sure that this was a date. Adrien might have offered to pay, but that was just the way he was: he had plenty of money, whereas he knew his friends didn’t. Maybe this was just something between friends. Marinette nodded to herself. Of course, that had to be the reason. And Adrien had just been nervous because he and Marinette didn’t usually hang out alone – and when they did, Marinette usually made a complete fool of herself.

Well, not today. She was going to make sure this was the best damn lunch of Adrien’s life!


	5. Babysitter

It took Adrien the better part of an hour to finish with the photoshoot; once the individual photos were done, Vincent insisted on starting the group shots. Marinette was visibly cringing by the time it was all done. There was no way this line was going to go over well in Paris. She had to believe that Gabriel wasn’t that tone deaf. Surely this spread was going to be used in the foreign market?

At any rate, she found herself hoping that he made no money off of it at all. It would serve him right considering how cold and bedraggled Adrien and the other models looked by the time they were finally released. Adrien disappeared into the tent with the rest of them and emerged about twenty minutes later, hair still damp but dressed in dry clothing. He offered Marinette a sheepish smile as he shuffled over.

“Sorry about that. I wasn’t expecting it to take so long. Thanks for waiting for me.”

“It was no problem at all,” Marinette said. And then, because he didn’t look convinced, she added, “Really, I didn’t mind at all. I like getting to see how photoshoots work first-hand. You never know when I might need the knowledge to do my own photoshoot someday!”

Adrien finally smiled. “Well, I guess when you put it that way… you’re welcome to come watch my photoshoots anytime you like.”

“Really?” Marinette said excitedly. “Thanks!”

“No problem. So, you wanna go get some lunch now? I’m starving. That juice was the only thing I’ve had all morning,” Adrien said.

“You didn’t eat breakfast?” Marinette asked.

“No. They don’t like it when we eat beforehand. It can make your stomach bulge,” Adrien explained. He was peering outside, so he didn’t see Marinette’s expression. That was probably a good thing, as she was certain that her face was not pleasant to look at. She had to work to school her expression by the time Adrien turned back to her.

“Then let’s go have a big lunch,” Marinette said with forced pleasantry. Between Adrien and Chat, she was going to have to start carrying around pastries to force feed them both. 

She stepped towards the exit, automatically lifting her umbrella up. Now she was really glad she had chosen to bring her new umbrella as opposed to the one that Adrien had given her. Knowing her luck, he would’ve recognized the old one and wondered why she was keeping an umbrella that technically didn’t function properly – and Marinette could only imagine the embarrassing excuse she would’ve been forced to come up with.

“That’s a nice umbrella,” Adrien said. “Did you make it?”

Marinette nodded, only then realizing that Adrien didn’t have one. “We – we can share, if you like.”

“Sure!” Adrien’s face brightened and he stepped up next to her. The arms brushed together and a tingling sensation ran up Marinette’s arm. Her gut clenched, and she tried not to think too closely about the fact that touching Chat last night had made her feel the same way.

It was still pouring just as hard as it had been last night, but fortunately Marinette’s umbrella was big enough to shield them both so long as they remained close. She swallowed hard, Adrien’s proximity making her palms sweat. He was in love with someone else, she reminded herself. Even if she wanted him – and she was _not_ thinking about Chat Noir, thank you very much – Adrien was not hers to have.

So much for that supposed Ladybug luck, she reflected bitterly. What she’d told Tikki was true. She shouldn’t hold what had happened in the alternate timeline against Adrien. Yet when she looked at him, she couldn’t help thinking about it. And in her heart, she knew that Chat Noir would _never_ have told someone who she was. If he knew her identity, he would take that knowledge to the death.

Of course, there could have been and probably were exenuating circumstances. Perhaps one of the most frustrating things of all was that Marinette had no way of knowing. All she knew was what Bunnix had told her, which wasn’t much at all, and what little she had managed to gleam from Chat Blanc. And he hadn’t exactly been forthcoming either, too focused on mourning Ladybug. So much tragedy, but Marinette had no real way of knowing how to prevent it. It was maddening.

“How about there?” Adrien said, and Marinette looked up in surprise, realizing that they had walked some distance from the park without her noticing. Adrien was pointing to a small café that she had never been to before.

“Looks good to me,” she said. “Anywhere to get out of this rain!” As they stepped into the doorway, she lowered the umbrella and gave it a good shake. Droplets of water went flying everywhere. It reminded her of Chat shaking himself down last night, and a fond smile crossed her face. Her partner could be such a dork sometimes, but that was one of the things she loved about him. Though there were times when his flirting and jokes were mistimed, he always knew how to make her smile even in the worst situations.

“Here, I’ll carry your umbrella so you don’t get wet,” Adrien said, holding out his hand. Marinette handed it over, looking at his kind face. Because he was, wasn’t he? So very kind, and so good at heart. There _must_ have been extenuating circumstances. 

“Thanks,” Marinette said with a smile as they got in line. They ordered soup and sandwiches, and then carried their orders over to a small table in the corner. Adrien hung the umbrella on the back of a spare chair and then settled into his seat with a relieved sigh. 

“It looks good,” Adrien said, glancing down at their meal. “Thanks again for coming with me, Marinette. I thought you might have plans with Alya or something.”

“Alya’s playing babysitter today.”

“I thought Nino said she had to babysit yesterday?”

Marinette nodded. “She did. There’s some big thing going on at the zoo this week that her father has been really busy with. And a couple of her mom’s coworkers caught the flu that’s going around, so her mom is working extra shifts. Lucky Alya got volunteered.” And Alya had _not_ been happy about it. Ella and Etta could be a lot to handle.

“That sucks,” Adrien said, tasting his soup.

“Yeah, especially because they’ve been cooped up in the apartment with all this rain. Alya texted me last night and said she might take the girls to the park today anyway just to let them burn off some steam.” Marinette nibbled at her sandwich and glanced again outside, hoping that the rain might have magically stopped. No such luck.

“That sounds like fun,” Adrien said with a wistful smile. “I’ve never gotten the chance to play in the rain before.”

Of course he hadn’t. Marinette took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Well, it’s a lot more fun than standing around posing in the rain,” she said, and Adrien let out a startled laugh. It brightened his eyes and that made her heart give an extra thump, which she studiously ignored.

“I’ll give you that one,” Adrien chuckled. “Knowing my luck, I’d probably get sick.”

“You’d just have to keep the good luck charm I gave you on hand,” Marinette replied.

“I always have it with me!” As though to prove it, Adrien set his spoon down and reached into his pocket. Marinette froze as he pulled out the charm. He’d told her that before, but it had been so long since she’d given it to him… she’d thought for sure that it would’ve become a forgotten trinket in his desk drawer or maybe, if she was lucky, atop his desk or nightstand.

“Oh,” she said weakly.

“My luck has been a bit better since you gave it to me.” Adrien smiled fondly at the charm. 

“I’m glad,” Marinette said, and then crammed a chunk of her sandwich into her mouth to keep herself from having to say anything else. She didn’t know what it meant that Adrien kept the charm with him at all times. Maybe this was supposed to be date.

But then, Adrien was funny like that. He didn’t always seem to grasp the fine line between friendship and ‘something more’, which was something Marinette had been struggling with for months. Nino attributed it to a childhood of being cooped up in the mansion with only his parents and, rarely, Chloé for company. And Marinette figured Nino was probably right about that, but that made it no less easier to deal with. 

They devoted the next couple of minutes to eating before Adrien tentatively brought up the homework they’d been given. Marinette, who hadn’t devoted much more than a passing thought to any of her schoolwork since the debacle with Hawkmoth, was glad to have the chance to talk it through with someone other than Alya. They were deep into a conversation about their English homework, and so missed the customer who stormed out after throwing a mug of tea at the hapless waitress.

But the glowing waitress morphing into an akuma, well. That was a bit harder to miss.


	6. Double Life

“You want a doughnut? Fine. I’ll give you a doughnut. I’ll give _everyone_ doughtnuts!” The akuma’s voice rang through the otherwise silent café. It was still dressed like a waitress, including a pencil and notebook. As Marinette and Adrien looked on in horror, she pointed her pencil at a group of customers. Marinette’s mouth dropped open as they were all transformed into doughnuts.

So much for their six weeks of uneasy peace. Apparently, Hawkmoth was back and up to his old tricks.

“You should go hide!” Marinette exclaimed, and it was only after the words were out that she realized Adrien had said the exact same thing. They looked at each other for a baffled moment.

Then the akuma upturned a few tables and the screaming started; in the ensuing rush of people who were trying to get out of the café, Marinette lost track of Adrien. That worried her, but she didn’t have time to dwell on it. As she made her way towards the back of the café, she hoped that Adrien had the good sense to make a run for it along with everyone else. And if he didn’t, then Ladybug would have to save him. She glanced around to make sure no one was watching and then ducked into what looked like a staff office of some kind. 

“Wow, I guess Hawkmoth decided he’s been quiet too long,” Tikki said, bursting out of the purse.

“And just when Adrien and I were having a nice lunch,” Marinette said sourly. 

“If you beat it quickly, Adrien might still be around,” Tikki hinted.

“Good point. Tikki, spots on!” 

As the flash of red light faded away, Ladybug turned to the window. It was small, but she was able to crack it open and wiggle her way out: she didn’t want to go back into the restaurant the way that she’d come less someone realize that Ladybug wasn’t coming through the front door. She lowered herself to the ground, used her yoyo to get up on top of the restaurant, and then jumped down onto the sidewalk.

In her absence, the akuma had made its way out of the café. A chill ran down Ladybug’s spine as she looked around at the oddly quiet street. There were doughnuts laying all over the sidewalk. Doughtnuts that used to be people. It was the first time in her life that she zero interest in the otherwise delicious-looking pastries, but at least it meant there was an easy path to where the akuma was.

“Ah, My Lady! There you are!” Chat landed beside her a moment later.

“Chat, thank goodness. I was in the area when I heard the screaming,” Ladybug said.

“I was watching the news. It was pretty hard to miss this a- _glaze_ -ing sight,” Chat replied.

Ladybug sighed. “Seriously, doughnut puns? Do you just lay awake at night and come up with puns for every situation you can think of?”

“I have to do something when I can’t sleep,” Chat said with a shrug. 

“… Fair,” she conceeded after a moment. “Let’s go.”

They made their way forward, following the trail of doughnuts, until they came across the akuma. Ladybug barely avoided being turned into a doughnut; Chat pushed her out of the way just in time. As the akuma cackled gleefully somewhere behind them, she stared at the fire hydrant that had become a pastry in her stead and realized that another miraculous would be _very_ handy right now. 

“I’ll take your miraculous, Ladybug!” the akuma cried. “Then I’ll turn you into a doughtnut like all the rest!”

“No you won’t!” Chat said, springing to his feet and jumping at her. He had his baton in hand – or at least, he did until one of the akuma’s lucky shots turned his baton into a doughtnut. Chat yelped and dropped it.

“Chat, I’ll distract her. You go and –” Ladybug stopped short as a belated realization dawned on her.

During their previous battles, Ladybug had always been the one to fetch any spare miraculous because she was the only one who knew the identities of their allies – save for Chloé, of course. They couldn’t use any of their old allies, but there was one person who had used a miraculous before but had not responded to Hawkmoth’s call. Ladybug would’ve been more than willing to send Chat to Adrien Agreste while she distracted the akuma from a safe distance, except for one rather large problem.

The miracle box was currently buried beneath some clothes at the back of Marinette Dupain-Cheng’s closet.

Ladybug could have slapped herself. She hadn’t stopped to think about the potential ramifications of that until now, when they were facing an akuma that was more easily fought from a distance rather than the up-close fighting Chat preferred. This was yet another con when it came to their double life. She couldn’t tell Chat where the box was hidden without giving herself away, and that meant she had to go get the miraculous herself.

“What was that?” Chat said, landing beside her.

“I’m going to run and get some help,” she told him with a significant look. “Can you distract her?”

“Of course, but be careful,” he said worriedly. “You don’t know if Hawkmoth or Mayura is nearby.”

“Right.” Ladybug turned on her heel and dashed away. Chat had been right to warn her considering that was how they’d ended up in this mess in the first place. It meant that she couldn’t just yoyo up to her balcony like she wanted to. She’d have to approach the bakery as Marinette.

She made her way a few blocks away and ducked into an empty alley. Paranoia had her glancing around, searching the buildings of the roofs on either side. She didn’t _see_ anyone, although that didn’t necessarily mean much. Still, uncomfortably aware that Chat was waiting for her, she knew she had no choice. They didn’t have the luxury of time, though with Adrien’s help they soon would.

“Spots off!” she whispered.

“Marinette, what are you doing?” Tikki said, looking baffled as she materialized.

“We need the Snake miraculous,” Marinette said, opening up her purse. “Come on, hurry!” She waved Tikki into the purse and then rushed out of the alley. 

She ran the whole way home, not caring about the fact that she was soaked or that her umbrella had been carelessly left behind in the café. Her thoughts were centered wholly around Chat and the fact that he’d been left to fend for himself; normally she wouldn’t have been quite this concerned, but it was like everything was magnified now. Hawkmoth had made it clear he was playing for keeps. 

She couldn’t lose Chat now. She just couldn’t.

Marinette threw the bakery door open and sprinted inside, past her startled mother and up the stairs to her apartment. Breathing heavily, she dashed up the steps to her room and over to her closet. She pushed the door open and dug through the mess at the bottom. The miracle box was exactly where she had left it. She sank to her knees and opened it up, looking at the rows of nearly arranged miraculouses. 

“Just the Snake miraculous?” Tikki asked.

“I…” Marinette chewed her lower lip, gazing down at the miraculous uncertainly. Did they need any other ones? Second Chance would go a long way towards improving the battle, but something like Shellter could be helpful too if the akuma got a lucky shot in. She or Chat could unify with Waayz. She picked up the Snake and Turtle miraculous and glanced at Tikki questioningly. Tikki smiled and nodded.

“Good choice!” she chirped.

“Thanks Tikki. Okay, let’s go. Spots –”

“Wait!” Tikki exclaimed. “Your mother saw you pass by. What’s going to happen if she comes up here and sees that you’re gone again?”

“Shit, I didn’t think of that. Ugh!” Marinette hastily pushed the miracle box back into her closet and stood up. They were going to have to figure out somewhere else to keep the box. There was no getting around it. She had no idea where they’d put it, but ideally it would be someplace where both she and Chat could easily get to it. They’d have to talk about it during their next patrol.

She ushered Tikki back into her purse and hurried down the stairs. She was hoping to get past without her maman noticing, but naturally, when she really needed it, her luck failed her. There were no customers in the bakery and, as a result, Sabine was waiting with crossed arms and a raised eyebrow. Marinette winced, pasting on a fake smile. Her maman didn’t buy it for a second.

“Where have you been, Marinette? Why weren’t you home last night by the time Papa and I went to bed?” Sabine said.

“I’m sorry, Maman. I got home right after but I didn’t want to wake you,” Marinette lied.

Sabine didn’t look impressed. “You know the rules. You have a curfew for a reason. And now you’re going out again? Where are you going?” Her tone strongly suggested that it better be good, or Marinette was going to find herself grounded.

“Adrien is waiting for me!” Marinette blurted out, which wasn’t technically a lie – Adrien just didn’t know it. “He asked me to lunch. I just wanted to come home and get the charm he made for me.” She clasped her hands in a pleading position. “Please, Maman, it’s _Adrien_! I _have_ to go meet him! I’ve been waiting for this for months!” She let some of her very real desperation seep into her voice.

Sabine sighed and, as Marinette had hoped she would, gave in. “You’re on bakery duty after school every day this week, got it? And no more breaking your curfew, or next time I won’t care who you’re going out with.”

“Got it. Thanks Maman, bye!” Marinette ran for the door beofre her maman could change her mind.

“Wait, shouldn’t you change into dry clothes?” Sabine shouted after her, but Marinette was already gone.


	7. Memes

Marinette jogged a few blocks away from the bakery before ducking into another alley. If she could find Adrien, she would give him the Snake miraculous. Ladybug would fight on her own, and she would give Chat – who still had that terrible habit of throwing himself in harms way – the Turtle miraculous. She was reasonably confident that they wouldn’t have too much difficulty.

“Tikki, spots on!” she whispered. One red flash of light later, Ladybug cast a quick glance around and took to the roofs. She assumed that Adrien had headed home; he’d mentioned in the past that his father was very particular about Adrien going home during akuma attacks, even if they happened during school hours. She figured out the approximate route he would’ve taken and followed, keeping an eye on the streets below just in case Adrien had chosen to hide somewhere along the way.

When she didn’t see him, she hopped the gate that bordered the Agreste mansion and used her yoyo to get to Adrien’s window ledge. Ladybug slowly straightened up, peeking over the side just in case Gabriel or Nathalie happened to be in the room with Adrien – she was positive that having a superhero stop by wouldn’t go over that well for Adrien, and she didn’t want to cause him trouble.

But she didn’t see anyone. Not Gabriel, not Nathalie, and not Adrien. The room was dark and quiet. Ladybug pushed the window open and crept inside, thinking that Adrien might have be in the bathroom taking a shower after his run home in the rain. No such luck. The bathroom was just as empty as the bedroom. She put her hands on her hips and sighed, realizing that Adrien had never made it here. Either he’d stopped to hide, or –

No. She refused to let her mind go down that road. Adrien was fine. He had definitely _not_ been turned into a doughnut. 

“Okay, I guess it’s up just me and Chat then,” Ladybug said out loud, turning on her heel and moving back towards the window. That meant both she and Chat would have to unify, but that was fine. It wouldn’t be as helpful as having a third body, but at least they were both practiced at unification by now, as they’d spent some time during patrol experimenting for just such an occasion. 

Ladybug threw her yoyo out the window and let it latch across the street. A quick tug of her wrist pulled her out the window, over the gate, and to the roof of the building across the way. After a moment’s thought, she took the Snake miraculous out of her pocket and clasped it on her wrist. The bracelet lit up with light that coalesced into Sass, who shook his head and then smiled at her.

“Good afternoon, Ladybug,” Sass said politely.

“Sorry Sass, I don’t really have time to talk,” Ladybug said apologetically. “Chat Noir needs me and I’m even later than I should be. Tikki! Sass! Unify!” She held out her right and left hand respectively, then clasped them together. Sass immediately turned back into light and vanished into the bracelet; warm silvery light ran over Ladybug, and she staggered with a slight dizziness as the light faded. She glanced down at herself and realized that all of the black parts of her costume had turned turquoise, so she knew it had worked. 

With that done, and now duly prepared in case she encountered the akuma along the way, she started taking the fast way back to Chat and the battle. Her heart thudded in her chest as she ran, and she prayed that she wasn’t too late. If Chat had been turned into a doughnut, that akuma wasn’t going to know what was coming for. Snakebug gritted her teeth and pushed herself to run faster.

They weren’t where she had left them. Snakebug surveyed the array of doughnuts littering the streets below her, swallowing hard and hoping that one of them wasn’t her partner. But there was an easy to find out. She opened up her yoyo and checked the map, breathing a sigh of relief when she saw that Chat’s dot was moving. Furthermore, it wasn’t that far away. She hit the button to open up a call between them.

“My Lady?” Chat’s breathless voice was in her ear a moment later.

“I have something for you,” she said, and rattled off where she was. Moments later, Snakebug saw a familiar black figure coming across the rooftops towards her. 

“Well well, I guess I need a new nickname for you,” Chat said with a grin. “I thought you went to get help? Couldn’t you find anyone?” 

They hadn’t really talked about finding new people to help. She hadn’t been able to figure out how to tell him that she didn’t know who to turn to. Beyond Adrien, there was Rose, Juleka, Ivan, Nathaniel, and Alix in her class, and then other people like Marc and Aurore. But she hesitated to involve anyone else from their school. It would be too easy for Hawkmoth to put two and two together and figure out that Ladybug attended Collège Françoise Dupont. She probably shouldn’t have even gone for Adrien.

“Please no new nicknames, and the person I was looking for wasn’t available.” She took out the Turtle miraculous and thrust it at him. He took it but didn’t immediately put it on, instead looking at her curiously.

“Who were you after?” Chat asked automatically, then caught himself and winced. “Sorry, I didn’t –”

“Adrien. Adrien Agreste,” Snakebug said, because she was fed up with secrets and technically Chat already knew this one anyway. 

Chat tensed. “O-oh?”

“Yeah, but I couldn’t find him. He wasn’t at home. I’m hoping he didn’t get caught by the akuma,” she said.

“I’m – I’m sure he’s fine. Maybe it’s for the best. Adrien probably wasn’t the right choice anyway,” Chat answered.

Snakebug looked at him sharply. “What do you mean?”

“Well, he couldn’t help you last time, right?” Chat said, not looking at her. He stared down at the Turtle miraculous, slowly turning it over in his hands. “You said that he failed… what, over 29,000 times or something like that? That’s a lot of failures.”

“That was different,” Snakebug objected. “Desperada was a tricky villain. Even Viperion struggled to help us defeat her. And besides, _you_ weren’t around either.” She crossed her arms and gave him a pointed look. “Maybe if you had been, Aspik would’ve had an easier time.”

Chat flinched and she instantly felt guilty. It wasn’t fair to throw something like that in his face, even if it was in Adrien’s defence, because he didn’t like talking about Desperada. She had always assumed that Chat hated the fact that he had not been there for her. She hesitated, then took a step closer to him and reached out to put a hand on his arm. Chat ducked away, which hurt more than she wanted to admit.

“It’s fine. You’re right. I was totally useless in that fight,” he said.

“Chat, that’s not what I meant –”

But he merely shook his head and set the bracelet on his wrist. “Plagg, Waayz, unify!” he called out. Snakebug looked away at the brilliant flash of light, then back to see what had happened. Turtle Noir maintained his black bodysuit, but had gained the green body armor around his midsection and, of course, the shell on his back. His mask had also turned green.

“Okay,” she said wearily, deciding to drop the subject for now. “Let’s go deal with this akuma.”

“Right,” he said, still not meeting her eyes, and jumped off the roof. Snakebug wiped the rain from her face and sighed in frustration before following.

They landed on the ground, narrowly avoiding some of the doughnuts, and started running in the direction of the akuma. As they grew near, Turtle Noir took the shield from his back and held it out in front of them. They rounded the corner to where the akuma was, and Snakebug slid her finger across the Snake miraculous to activate its power. The silvery flash told her she’d been successful.

“Be careful,” she whispered to Turtle Noir.

“I know, but really, it’s hard to take this akuma seriously when this whole situation looks a bad meme,” he remarked. The lightheartedness of his answer gave her hope that maybe he wasn’t mad after all, and she took her yoyo in hand and swung it loosely.

“Let’s do this, _Chaton_ ,” she said.

“Right behind you, My Lady,” he said, and launched himself out in front of her. Snakebug followed quickly on his heels as the akuma swung around to face them.


	8. Goodbyes

"Time to say your goodbyes, Ladybug!"

"Not quite," Snakebug said grimly, touching the Snake miraculous. She slid it back with a flick of her finger. The world seemed to hesitate before suddenly dissolving around her; the next thing she knew, she was standing side-by-side with Turtle Noir, who was no longer a doughnut on the ground, with the akuma somewhere in front of them. Just as it had been for the past four times she used Second Chance.

“I know, but really, it’s hard to take this akuma seriously when -"

"This looks like a meme, I know," Snakebug snapped, and Turtle Noir blinked at her in surprise. Then he cocked his head and understanding fell across his expression. His shoulders bowed and he straightened up as though a heavy weight were pressing down on him.

"How many times?" he asked gently, and she swallowed hard.

"This is the fifth. I don't know what's wrong! Every damn time, you use Shell-ter and then the akuma comes up from behind us and turns you into a doughnut," she said, torn between frustration and grief. Being turned into a pastry wasn't the worst way she had ever lost her partner, but that didn't make it hurt any less. Someday, she was going to kick Hawkmoth in the backside for every time she'd been forced to mourn Chat Noir.

"Hey, it's okay. Let's think this through. What are we doing wrong? What can we do different? Is it better for us to separate and come in on opposite sides?" he asked, and Snakebug shook her head.

"No, we tried that. It didn't work," she said sourly.

Turtle Noir nodded, as though he'd anticipated that answer, and said, "Have you called for your Lucky Charm yet?"

"Not yet. She gets us each time before I can." Snakebug frowned. "You think I should? But we don't even know where the akuma is yet..." They were screwed if she had to go somewhere to charge Tikki up, and sometimes that happened if either of them called for their powers too early. But on the other hand, maybe her Lucky Charm would be just the thing necessary to turn the tides of the battle.

"It seems logical that it would be either her pencil or her notebook. Maybe the combination of your Lucky Charm and Shell-ter will enable us to get close enough that I can -" He wiggled his fingers at her.

"It's worth a try, I guess. Lucky Charm!" Snakebug threw her yoyo aloft, watching as the familiar red light shot up the string. There was a particularly bright burst of light and then a red, black-spotted wrench fell into her hands.

"A wrench," Turtle Noir said blankly.

Snakebug looked around for inspiration. Her eyes fell upon a nearby fire hydrant, then onto Turtle Noir's shield. Slowly, she smiled. "Okay, I have a plan we haven’t tried before. Give me your shield."

"Okay." He took it off and handed it over. 

"I'm going to be the distraction," she declared. "Be ready to go after her, got it?"

Turtle Noir nodded and they separated. Breathing a quiet prayer, Snakebug ran towards the fire hydrant. She fit the wrench around the screw and pulled as hard as she could; with the increased strength gifted to her by the suit, the screw turned easily. Water began to spurt from the hydrant with great force. Snakebug dropped the wrench and swung the shield over the water, gasping as she felt its strength. Her arms shook as she redirected the flow, aiming it in the direction of the akuma. It was with a lot of satisfaction that she heard the akuma scream.

"Damn you, Ladybug!” it shrieked.

"Now!" Snakebug shouted, and saw the black-and-green figure of her partner go sprinting out from the shadows to her left. The akuma couldn't see, as it was blinded by water, and Turtle Noir was on it within seconds, snatching the pencil and paper out of its hand.

"Cataclysm!" he shouted, and both items went up in black smoke. Snakebug breathed a sigh of relief when a purple butterfly fluttered free and began to fly away.

"Oh no you don't," she muttered, casting the shield aside. "I free you from evil!" She swung her yoyo out and caught the butterfly, then pulled her yoyo close and ran her finger across the surface. "Bye bye, little butterfly."

"Wh-what happened?" the very confused waitress asked Turtle Noir as he helped her to her feet. She gave a horrified gasp as she took in the state of the street: the damanged shops, the doughnuts all over the place, the spewing hydrant. Turtle Noir patted her hand.

"Miraculous Ladybug!" Snakebug shouted, throwing the wrench into the air. It exploded into thousands of miniature ladybugs, which swept across the street. The next thing Snakebug knew, they were surrounded by dozens of equally baffled Parisians and the hydrant was back to normal. 

"It's okay," Turtle Noir was saying as Snakebug walked over. "You were akumatized, but it's no big deal. Everything is back to normal."

"Rght. I - thank you," the young woman said as Snakebug and Turtle Noir bumped fists.

"You're welcome," Snakebug said with a small smile. "Bug out!" She made her way to the top of the nearest roof. Turtle Noir joined her a few seconds later, and they exchanged relieved looks.

"That was a hard one. Waayz, Plagg, divide!" Turtle Noir said, spreading his hands. Waayz appeared in a flash of green light.

"Sass, Tikki, divide!" Snakebug said, and watched as her spots returned to just plain black. She smiled gratefully at Sass before sliding the bracelet off her wrist; when she got home, she would put the Turtle and Snake miraculouses on and figure out what Sass and Waayz liked to eat. They had both worked hard today and deserved a reward as much as Tikki and Plagg did.

"Here you are, My Lady," Chat said, handing her the Turtle miraculous. Ladybug took it; she wanted to talk to him about the location of the miracle box, but knew that now wasn't the time. She was down to two spots left on her earrings if her counting of the beeps was correct, and Chat had four pads left on his ring. A discussion like that needed to be more than two minutes, as she suspected it would take some time to come up with a reasonable alternative.

"Chat, wait," she said, catching his arm when he would have gone.

Chat frowned at her. "Don't you have to go?"

"Yes, but - I didn't mean it before. What happened with Desperada wasn't your fault. It wasn't Adrien's fault either. It was no one’s fault," Ladybug said, willing him to believe it.

"Really," Chat said, very softly. There was a strange smile on his face when he leaned in towards her. Her breath caught as his lips touched the curve of her cheek, right where her mask lay against her cheekbone. He lingered for a moment, long enough for her to inhale the scent of his cologne, and then he drew away. He bowed his head to her, and then turned away and used his newly restored baton to propel himself off the rooftop.

"... What?" Ladybug whispered to herself, lifting a shaking hand to touch the place where he'd kissed her. He'd kissed her hand before, of course, and she thought he might have even kissed her cheek before, but it had never been like _that_. Her heart was suddenly hammering, and it had very little to do with the battle they'd just been through. She stood still, there in the rain, staring after him, until her earrings gave the second-to-last beep that meant she only had one more minute until the last of Tikki's strength would give out. Then she cursed and scrambled to get off the roof, landing in an alley mere seconds before her transformation gave out.

"Whew! Those unifications are tiring!" Tikki said, landing in Marinette's hands.

"I'll get you some of the really good cookies," Marinette promised, but she was still distracted and Tikki could tell. Tikki sat up, staring at Marinette with narrowed eyes.

"Did something happen?" she asked.

"No," Marinette lied, and quite unsuccessfully at that judging from Tikki's skeptical expression. Marinette sighed. "I may have implied that the reason Aspik and I failed all those times with Desperada was because Chat wasn't around." She grimaced as she spoke. Chat took Ladybug's health and safety very seriously. For her to imply that Ladybug had died 29,000 times because he hadn't been there -

"Oh, Marinette," Tikki groaned.

"I know, I know. It was awful of me." Marinette hung her head. "I didn't mean for it to come out that way. He was just saying that Adrien was a bad choice to be a miraculous holder, and I was trying to defend Adrien."

There was a small but significant pause before Tikki said, "Ah."

“I didn’t do it because I still like Adrien!” Marinette said hotly, assuming that was what Tikki was thinking. She honestly didn’t know _what_ she was feeling. Going on the date with Adrien had been nice, and there were moments where he’d made her heart flutter. But that kiss from Chat had left her spellbound, and part of her – a very small part – might have wanted more…

And yet, she was supposed to be letting both of them go. So why did it feel as though her feelings for Adrien were the same as ever, while her feelings for Chat Noir were deepening? It just wasn’t _fair_.

“Of course not,” Tikki said patronizingly.

Marinette sighed. “I’m going to have to bring Chat a lot of apology pastries, aren’t I?”

“That would probably be a good start.”


	9. Uncle Jagged

The sound of a text message woke Marinette for the second morning in a row. Groaning, she fumbled around for her phone and looked blearily at the screen. The message was from Jagged, requesting her help in designing a new costume for his next show. Marinette sighed, rubbing her eyes tiredly as she sat up, and pulled her blanket more securely around her shoulders.

“What’s wrong?” Tikki asked, shuffling around on the pillow. “You can’t be late; the sun hasn’t even fully risen…”

“No. It’s from Jagged. Uncle Jagged, according to this.” Marinette smiled fondly in spite of herself. She wasn’t quite sure when Jagged had adopted that nickname for himself, but she was hardly going to argue against it. 

“Oh. What did he want?”

“He wants me to design something new for him for his next concert.”

“What’s wrong with that?” Tikki sounded confused. “Normally you would be thrilled.”

“These are hardly normal circumstances, Tikki,” Marinette pointed out. “I just… my brain doesn’t seem to be working very well lately when it comes to creativity.”

“It’s just because of the stress you’re under. You’ll feel better soon,” Tikki said reassuringly.

Marinette sighed. “How do you know that? It’s not like things are going to magically improve anytime soon. Not unless we somehow beat Hawkmoth and Mayura.” She huddled into her blanket, staring gloomily down at her phone. Sharing Guardian secrets with Chat had helped a little, but not as much as she had hoped. And now they didn’t even have allies or Master Fu to fall back on. Their situation was more precarious than ever. 

“Have faith, Marinette,” Tikki said. “Everything will turn out in the end. Don’t take the commission if it’s just going to stress you out more; Jagged will understand if you have to say no. But if even a little part of you wants to try, then I think you should go for it. Your civilian life shouldn’t grind to a halt just because you’re Ladybug. Those things are important because they give you something to fight for.”

“I know.” Marinette stared at the phone, knowing that Tikki was right, before she lifted her head to look over at her desk. Designing could be stressful sometimes, but it also often served as stress relief. She had thought she was fortunate because she had no particular projects she was working on right now, but maybe that was part of the problem. Having something specific to puzzle over could be just the thing she needed.

She smiled to herself and typed out a quick reply to Jagged, telling him that she would accept and that she’d be in touch with Penny over the details. Then she locked her phone and set it aside, raising her hands over her head in a full body stretch. It was just after seven, so about an hour earlier than she usually got up but too late to bother trying to go back to sleep.

“Well? What did you decide?” Tikki said.

“I said yes,” Marinette replied. “I’m choosing to believe that you’re right and that things are going to start looking up.”

Tikki beamed and flew off the pillow to give Marinette a kiss on the cheek. “I’m proud of you!”

“Thanks,” Marinette said. Truth be told, she did feel a little better after accepting the commission. Good enough that she climbed down the ladder and got dressed, then did her hair and make-up. With a good forty-five minutes until she had to leave, Marinette crept downstairs to the bakery kitchen.

Her papa was already at work, of course, whistling cheerfully as he picked up a large slab of dough and hurtled it against the counter. It was a loud, if familiar, sound that Marinette had listened to for much of her childhood, and it was comforting now. She entered the kitchen, setting her school things aside, donned an apron, washed her hands, and took a seat on the stool before the decorating table. Tom caught her eye and grinned, nodding towards a tray of cupcakes.

“Those could use that special Marinette touch,” he said, picking up the dough and placing it in a large bowl. Then he whisked it into the proofing drawer, at the same time removing a bowl of dough that was ready to be sliced up into portions.

“I’ll see what I can do,” Marinette said. She quickly whipped up some frosting and then got it into the piping bags. Baking wasn’t her strong point, but she did enjoy helping to decorate things. Her hands were steady thanks to all the sewing work that she did, which helped to create steady lines – though she would never match the level that her papa and maman were at.

She finished the platter of cupcakes and then moved on to two more, piling the frosting on top in thick whorls. Then she helped her papa to fill some tarts and pile on fruit on top. They looked delicious when they were done; the fruit was glistening thanks to the glaze that Tom painted over them. Tom must have noticed her admiring glance, because he smiled and picked up a bakery box. Deftly, he slid four tarts inside.

“For your breakfast and your friends,” he said. “You won’t have time to eat now.”

“What? Oh! I didn’t even notice what time it is!” Marinette quickly took off her apron and set it aside, then took the box. With a quick thanks, she grabbed her school things and rushed out the door.

It wasn’t raining hard this morning, but it was still drizzling. As she ran to school, Marinette thought longingly of her pretty umbrella and wondered if it was worth going back to the café to see if the employees had found it. If they hadn’t, and it had been lost or stolen in the akuma’s attack, her only other option was the one that Adrien had given her… and she wasn’t sure that was an option at all.

Marinette rushed into the classroom about eight minutes before class began and was greeted by Alya’s dramatic gasp. Alya looked at her, looked at the clock, looked back at Marinette, and then started exaggeratedly rubbing her eyes. Nino and Adrien both started giggling. Marinette rolled her eyes at her friends and climbed the steps to her desk, setting her things down.

“Do my eyes deceive me? Marinette Dupain-Cheng, _on time_?!” Alya proclaimed loudly.

“Yeah, yeah. Laugh it up,” Marinette said, unable to keep from smiling. “I guess I’ll just have to eat these tarts all by myself.”

Nino immediately stopped laughing. “I would just like to point out that my bro and I didn’t say a word,” he said.

“You traitor,” Alya muttered. She leaned her hand on her desk and batted her eyes. “You wouldn’t deprive your best friend of a tart, would you, Mari?”

“I guess not.” Marinette opened the box and let Adrien, Nino and Alya pick out the tarts that they wanted. Then she sat down and picked up the last one for herself. For a few minutes, the only sounds that filled the space between the four of them was murmurs of appreciation and chewing.

Adrien finished his in about five bites. Licking his lips, he said, “That was delicious, Marinette! Thank you!”

“I’m glad you liked it,” Marinette said. “I’ll let my papa know.”

“I hadn’t intended it, but I guess you can consider this a gesture of my gratitude.” Adrien reached down beside his bag. Marinette gasped when she saw what he was holding.

“My umbrella! How did you get it?” she cried, taking it from him.

“I only thought about it after,” Adrien admitted. “I remembered you didn’t have the chance to grab it, so I went back and asked. The employees had it behind the counter. Actually, it came in handy. It was really pouring by then and I was able to use it on the way home.” He smiled.

“Wait, what’s this now?” Nino said, looking between them.

“Marinette and I had lunch together yesterday, but it got interrupted by an akuma attack,” Adrien said easily. Alya choked on her bite of tart and Marinette winced. Oh yeah. What with everything that was going on, she’d kind of forgotten to tell Alya that, hadn’t she?

“Thank you so much, Adrien,” she said, pretending that she couldn’t see Alya’s stunned face.

“It was no problem! And, um, we didn’t get to finish our lunch… so how would you like to have lunch with me again tomorrow?” Adrien said, looking at her hopefully. Nino’s jaw hit the floor. Alya stopped coughing and just stared.

“Sure, that great would be! I-I mean, that would be great,” Marinette said, and promptly bent over to fuss around with putting her umbrella away so that no one could see her red face.

“You know what, we should really wash our hands before class starts,” Alya said suddenly. She crammed the last of her tart in her mouth and stood up, grabbing Marinette’s arm. Marinette squeaked in dismay as she was dragged out of her chair, down the steps, and out the door.

“Alya, class starts in like three minutes,” she said pleadingly, and finally managed to stop Alya just before they got to the bathroom. She knew that if Alya got her into a secluded space, they would definitely be late – and frankly, Marinette earned enough tardies and absences because of her work as Ladybug as it was without contributing to it like this.

“Who cares?! You had a date with Adrien? A _date_ with _Adrien_?!” Alya’s voice rose with each word. “Why didn’t you tell me?! I can’t believe you weren’t screaming it from the rooftops!”

“I – ugh, it’s complicated. I’ll explain at lunch,” Marinette said, rubbing her head. 

Alya narrowed her eyes, looking at Marinette suspiciously. “You better. I want _every_ detail, got it?”

“Got it,” Marinette said meekly.


	10. Alter Egos

And that was how Marinette found herself cornered in the classroom at lunch that day. Everyone else, including Lila, Chloé, Sabrina and Madame Bustier, left as soon as the bell rang, leaving Marinette alone with Alya, Juleka, Rose, Mylène and Alix. Her palms grew sweaty with nerves as Juleka closed the door behind Madame Bustier and she gulped as her five friends all turned and looked at her at the same time. Suddenly, she knew exactly how the prey animal felt when it had been cornered by a larger predator. If ever there was a time for an akuma attack, it was now.

But of course, Marinette was not that lucky, and so there was no escape when Rose exclaimed, "Is is true, Marinette? Did you really go on a date with Adrien?"

"I thought he was dating Kagami," Alya said, sitting down beside Marinette.

"Maybe they broke up," Alix theorized.

"Did they break up so Adrien could be with you?" Mylène said, clasping her hands together. "Oh my gosh, that would be so romantic.

"How did he ask you out?" Juleka wanted to know.

Marinette looked from one to the other, unsure of who to answer first. "I - uh -"

"Okay, start with the important stuff," Alix said, slamming a hand down on the desk. "Is Adrien still dating Kagami too? Because I will kick his ass if he's trying to date the two of you at the same time -"

"No! Adrien wouldn't do that," Marinette said.

"Yeah, she's right. He wouldn't," Alya said, nodding.

"But how do you know?" Alix pressed.

"Because Kagami told me that they weren’t dating," Marinette replied. "And Kagami wouldn't lie about something like that. She just wouldn't."

"Wait, she told you? What did she say?" Rose asked.

"Well, to be honest I don't think that she and Adrien were ever actually dating. She said that she asked him out, but that Adrien told her he wasn't ready... or something like that. And that she was tired of waiting for him, so she was deciding to move on." Marinette hesitated.

Alya leaned forward, sensing there was more. "What else did she say?"

"She said she thought Adrien was in love with someone else," Marinette admitted.

They all gasped. Then Rose squealed. "Oh my god, she meant you!"

"I don't know that!" Marinette said quickly. "None of you do!'

"But Adrien asked you out!" Mylène said. "It has to be you!'

Marinette shook her head. "Guys, he didn't really ask me out. I went for a walk after having juice with Kagami and I stumbled across his photoshoot in the park." That was a lie, but she wasn't about to admit that Kagami had basically pushed her and Adrien together. "Adrien was tired and wet. Do you know his father was making him do a photoshoot in the rain? With no cover?"

"What?" Alya said indignantly. "That asshole!"'

"Poor Adrien. It was really cold out yesterday too," Juleka said softly.

"Adrien's father is the worst," Alix muttered, and Mylène and Rose nodded in agreement.

"Right? So I really think he was just looking for a friend and I happened to be there. I could hardly say no when he asked if I wanted to grab lunch." Marinette leaned back in her chair. "At first I thought it might be a date, but... there is really no proof that Adrien likes me. He's had dozens of chances to ask me out before and he never has. There must be someone else." Her heart clenched a bit as her friends exchanged looks.

"God I hope it's not Chloé or Lila," Alix said at last.

"I have no idea who it is," Marinette said, shrugging, though she was still right there with Alix on that one.

They was a pause during which no one said anything, but they all looked thoughtful. Alya in particular had her face screwed up in concentration, an expression not unlike she usually worse in math class. Marinette glanced around at her friends and, in spite of her earlier dread, felt a swell of affection for all of them. She hadn't spent much time with any of them over the past few weeks, too preoccupied with the miraculous side of things, and she found herself regretting that. It was refreshing to have a conversation with someone that didn't involve Hawkmoth.

Finally, Mylène said tentatively, "He did ask you to lunch again though, didn't he? Maybe that means something."

"It's Adrien. He could just be doing to be polite," Juleka pointed out. 

"I think that's what it is," Marinette said, resting her chin on her hands.

"There's just one thing I can't figure out," Alya said slowly. They all turned to her.

"What is it?" Rose asked.

"It's you, Marinette," Alya said.

"Me?" Marinette blinked.

"Yes, you. Two months ago, you would've been over the moon if Adrien had asked you out to lunch. It wouldn't have mattered if it was just between friends; you would've been freaking out over the mere _idea_ that the two of you might get to spend some alone time together," Alya said. "But now, you're acting like it's nothing. In fact, if I didn't know better, I'd think that you didn't even want to go with him."

"That's not true. I want to go," Marinette objected, but it was too late. Alix, Juleka, Rose and Mylène were exchanging looks.

"You know what, she's right. Something's up," Alix said. "Spill it. Don't you like Adrien anymore?"

"Wh-what?" Marinette squeaked.

"Oh my god," Juleka said, her eyes widening. "Do you like someone else?"

"Who?!" Rose demanded.

"I-I don't - there's - there's no one else!" Marinette sputtered.

"I don't believe you. I think there is someone else. Is it Luka?" Alya asked.

"That would be so romantic! If you and Luka got married, you and Juleka would be sisters-in-law!" Rose gushed, grabbing Juleka's arm.

"It's not Luka!" Marinette exclaimed. "Juleka, I - your brother is really amazing, okay? He's sweet and kind but he's just not right for me." 

Juleka smiled. "It's okay, Marinette. I understand," she said. "To be honest, I was kind of wondering about that. He told me that you made it clear that you weren't interested in anything romantic. He was disappointed, but thank you for being honest with him."

"Of course," Marinette said.

"So if it's not Luka, it's someone else," Alya said thoughtfully, nibbling on a lock of hair. 

"You guys, there is no one else," Marinette repeated, attempting to sound stern. Yet even as she spoke, an image of mischievous green eyes, blond hair and black cat ears flashed through her mind, and she felt her face grow hot.

"You're blushing!" Mylène blurted out. "There is!"

"Marinette, come on, why won't you tell us?" Alix said impatiently. "If you don't like Adrien anymore, that's fine. Especially if he's in love with someone else. But maybe we can help you get together with this new guy."

"I don't -" Marinette sighed and hid her face in her hands for a moment. She knew that her friends were trying to help, and that if she told them to back off, they would. That felt mean, though. 

Still, it wasn't like she could tell them about Chat Noir. Especially when Marinette wasn't even sure that what she felt towards her partner quantified as something worth telling. Yes her feelings towards him had changed, but she hadn't yet identified _how_. And also, he was Chat Noir. Admitting that it was him would either mark her forever as fan, or it would be a clue towards her alter ego. Marinette honestly wasn't sure which would be worse.

"Marinette?" Rose said, and her voice had grown gentler.

"I'm not ready to tell anyone yet," Marinette said finally, lowering her hands. "I don't know how I feel anymore, but I do know that it doesn't feel right to do anything with anyone until I figure it out. Is that okay?"

"Of course it's okay," Alya said immediately, scooting closer and wrapping her arm around Marinette's shoulders.

"Yeah, Marinette, it's not like you and Adrien are married," Alix said. "You don't have to be committed to just him."

Juleka nodded. "Especially since it's been months and Adrien hasn't paid any attention to you beyond friendship."

"You deserve someone who will care for you," Rose added.

"Whoever you pick, we'll be there to help you when you're ready," Mylène finished, smiling.

Marinette tried to blink back the tears that rushed to her eyes, but they slid down her face anyway. "Thank you," she whispered.

"Aw, Mari." Alya hugged her tighter. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to pressure you. I was just so excited when it seemed like something was finally happening."

"It's okay," Marinette said, because honestly she wasn't even upset about that. This was the kind of support that she craved as Ladybug, and she knew that Chat felt similarly. Somehow it always came down to the two of them against the world. But as much as she cared for Chat, that was also a very lonely position to be in. It just wasn't fair! She and Chat had finally succeeded in building a semi-reliable team only for Hawkmoth to expose their allies and leave her and Chat right back where they started. They deserved better than this.

She snuggled into Alya's hug and shortly felt more arms wrapping around her as Juleka, Rose, Mylène and Alix joined in on the hug as best they could, considering that Marinette and Alya were still sitting at their desk. The hug felt good. Really good. It was exactly what Marinette had needed the most and she hadn't even realized it. A small smile crossed her face even as she lifted a hand to wipe her tears away. Having friends was the best, and if she could just figure out how to re-translate that into the superhero side of things, Hawkmoth wouldn't have a chance.


	11. Gamer

As per her maman’s wishes, Marinette went right home after school and put on another apron. Rather than help out in the kitchens, she spent most of her time out front helping with the pre-supper rush. It was routine but tiring work, and Marinette was exhausted by the time she was finished eating dinner and dragging herself upstairs. Still, that didn’t mean her day was over: _Marinette’s_ day might be, but _Ladybug’s_ was just beginning.

“Is that for you and Chat?” Tikki asked, eyeing the bakery box that Marinette was holding with considerable interest, and Marinette smiled.

“Yes. I managed to get my hands on a couple of the cupcakes I decorated this morning, and some of the older pâte à choux,” she said. “But I also picked up a couple of these.” She tooked a napkin out of her pocket and unfolded it to reveal three chocolate chip cookies. Her smile widened as Tikki cheered and fell on the cookies ravenously.

While Tikki ate, she undressed and brushed her hair out. Sometimes it was easier to get ready for bed before she went out as Ladybug, so that all she had to do when she got home was slide underneath the covers. So Marinette donned her favorite blue pajamas and went out to wash her face, then said good night to her parents and returned to her room. She closed the door and turned to Tikki, who had nothing but crumbs left in front of her.

“I’m ready!” Tikki chirped.

“Great. Tikki, spots on!” Red light flashed, and then Ladybug nimbly climbed the ladder of her bed, scooped up the box of pastries, and slipped out onto the balcony.

 _Finally_ the rain had fully stopped, though thick clouds hung low over the sky. The night was dark and chilly, and Ladybug shivered as she made her way towards the place where she and Chat typically started their patrols. They wouldn’t be out long tonight, she thought. Just long enough to have their conversation, do a quick loop around Paris, and then head home.

Chat was already waiting for her. Ladybug didn’t know how long he’d been there for, but his hair was damp enough to hang in his eyes so it had probably been a while. He still smiled when he saw her, as he always did. This time, the way her stomach fluttered as though filled with ladybugs didn’t pass by ignored – but it did make her frown quizzically.

“Problem, Bugaboo?” Chat asked, and this time she frowned at him.

“No, just thinking. Come here.” She set the box down and impulsively pulled him into a hug. Chat was frozen against her for all of two seconds before he melted into the hug, wrapping his arms around her waist and resting his cheek on the crown of her head. 

“What brought this on?” he asked after a couple of minutes, the rumble of his purr audible when he spoke. She could feel it in his chest too, a soft, steady sensation against her cheek.

“I got a really good hug today,” she said, thinking back to her friends. “I thought I should pass it on, and I didn’t think you’d mind.”

“You can hug me anytime,” Chat said, and the thread of honest yearning in his voice immediately made her resolve to hug him on a regular basis. She knew for a fact that Chat didn’t get enough hugs at home, but she had never been sure it was her place to try to resolve that. Now, she squeezed him a bit harder to make up for her earlier foolishness before pulling back.

“I brought treats. Do you want to sit and talk for a bit?” she asked.

“Sure. I’m guessing you have a conversation topic in mind?”

Ladybug nodded as she picked up the pastries and drew him back from the edge; there was a small maintenance shed atop the building, so they could sit with their backs against it and be somewhat shielded from the wind. He sat down first, and then she sat beside him, close enough that their thighs touched, and opened the box of pastries before setting it in his lap. Chat’s face lit up when he saw what was inside.

“Help yourself,” Ladybug said, and he grabbed a cupcake.

“Thanks! I love the Dupain-Cheng bakery,” he said, biting into it.

“They are the best,” Ladybug agreed, feeling warm as she watched him eat with obvious pleasure. She would’ve happily let him have both cupcakes and all of the pâte à choux, but Chat gave her a look like he knew what she was thinking and pointedly handed her the other cupcake. She took it and tasted the frosting, savoring the caramel-sweet taste.

“So what did you want to talk about?” he asked. “I’m guessing it’s not about being a gamer or the Ultimate Mecha Strike movie…”

“The miracle box,” she said, and Chat stopped eating to give her his full attention.

“What about it? Is it – Hawkmoth didn’t –”

“No! No, it’s fine. I just need a better hiding place for it. Right now, it’s in my bedroom,” Ladybug told him. “But that doesn’t work long term because you can’t access it there. It’s no longer realistic for me to be the only one who can go get a spare miraculous.”

Chat nodded slowly, looking thoughtful. “Plus it puts your family in danger. If Hawkmoth ever figured out who you were, then I don’t think he’d hesitate to go after the miracle box immediately.”

She shuddered at the thought. “Exactly. I did think about carrying it around with me like Master Fu did towards the end, but it’s so noticeable. And Hawkmoth knows what it looks like. He’d recognize it if he ever saw it.”

“No, you carrying it everywhere isn’t realistic anyway. What would you do with it during a battle? One of us would constantly have to guard it,” Chat said. 

“And I thought about leaving it in Master Fu’s old shop. So far as I know, it’s still in his name. But that doesn’t feel right either. I can’t watch over it there, and besides Hawkmoth knows the location of the shop. As long as it’s in Master Fu’s name, I don’t see why Hawkmoth wouldn’t keep checking back there.” Ladybug took a big bite of her cupcake out of frustration.

“Well, that and the fact that we have no idea how long it’ll stay in Master Fu’s name,” Chat pointed out. “I don’t know if he owned the storefront or if he was just renting it; if he was renting it, the owners will rent it to someone else when the money stops coming. For that matter, you and I should probably go there sometime soon to make sure that Master Fu didn’t leave anything else relating to the miraculous there.”

Ladybug groaned. “I didn’t even think of that. I assumed he packed up everything when he fled, but he could’ve missed something.”

He patted her arm absently and continued, “If he _did_ own it, we might be able to find a deed or something amongst his paperwork. If you know where he is, you could send it to him. Then he could sell it, and that would give him money to live off of.”

“Yeah, maybe,” Ladybug said. “So… suggestions for the miracle box? I’ve been wracking my brain, but it’s hard to come up with something anonymous.”

“Let me think about it for a minute,” Chat said. He polished off his cupcake and took a pâte à choux. 

She finished off her own cupcake while Chat thought. She wasn’t kidding when she said she’d been thinking hard about what to do with the miracle box, but so far nothing feasible had come to mind. She wished they were old enough to do something with Master Fu’s shop. Hawkmoth could be fooled if she and Chat put it in someone else’s name, and it would give them a comfortable, indoor space away from prying eyes. But then again, Chat was right when he said that space legally belonged to Master Fu and not them…

“Okay,” Chat said suddenly. “What about a locker?”

“A locker?”

“Like a gym locker, or maybe even one at the bus station?” He turned to her, eyes wide and excited. “It would have to be somewhere open twenty-four hours a day, but there are lots of them in Paris. We can rent a locker and have one lock with two keys, or a combination lock if you think that’s more secure.”

“But that’s not anonymous,” Ladybug said, taking a pâte à choux. She ate it in a couple of bites.

“It doesn’t have to be. You can rent the locker. I’d do it, but I guarantee my civilian self would attract more attention, so it’s best that you do it. Either way, as long as we keep payment up, the locker won’t be touched and I never have to know whose name it’s under.” Chat grinned triumphantly, and she was seized with the sudden urge to kiss him. Ladybug blinked and flushed, looking away.

“It sounds good,” she said. “No one would think twice of a couple kids visiting a locker. We’d just have to remember to detransform,” she added ruefully, and Chat wrapped an arm around her shoulders.

“It’s fine,” he said gently.

It wasn’t, but she didn’t press. Instead, she said, “Wouldn’t locker rental be expensive, though? I don’t have a lot of spare money.”

“I can pay for it. I have lots of money,” Chat said confidently.

“Are you sure?” Ladybug said.

“Absolutely. I’ll bring you some money tomorrow morning, if you want to meet here at 8am,” Chat said. “That okay?”

“Very,” Ladybug said, so grateful for him that she was now torn between wanting to kiss him and crying again. This was why she needed him: he saw the answers where she couldn’t. She rested her head on his shoulder and let him eat the rest of the pâte à choux.


	12. Kwami Mom

It was agony to drag herself out of bed early after going to bed late, but Marinette persevered. She got dressed and then went downstairs, telling her maman that she was heading out to meet Alya early as an excuse. Sabine didn’t blink an eye at that, sending Marinette on with a hug and a smile and a stuffed croissant for breakfast. Marinette ate it quickly as she ran out the door and headed for the nearest alley.

The sun had finally returned to Paris, breaking through the heavy clouds, and Ladybug thoroughly enjoyed the feeling of it on her back as she made her way towards their meeting spot. This time, she made it there first. She sat down on the still-damp roof and turned her face towards the sun with a contented smile. Moments later, she heard Chat’s boots touch down behind her.

“And here I thought I was the cat,” Chat said, amused. 

“It just feels so good. I want to stay out in the sunshine all day,” Ladybug said as he walked over to her. 

“I know. I’m tired of the rain.” He crouched down next to her and held his hand out. When she opened her hand, he set a stack of notes on her palm.

“Chat! That’s way too much,” she protested, but Chat shook his head.

“It’s really not. I’m sure this sort of thing is expensive, and you might as well rent it for at least six months to start with.” 

“I don’t feel right taking your money for this,” she said. “The miracle box is supposed to be my responsibility.”

“I know, I know, you’re the kwami mom.” He grinned at her outraged expression. “But let me help you with this, okay? It’s to everyone’s dentriment if the miracle box falls into Hawkmoth’s hands, you know. I really won’t even notice that this money is gone.”

“Fine,” Ladybug said. “On one condition. Don’t ever call me that again.”

“Deal,” he said, snickering. “Are you going to rent the locker after school?”

“I’ll do it sometime today,” she said evasively. She would’ve gone at lunch, but she was meeting Adrien. And she had to go right home after school to help out in the bakery, but she figured she could slip out for a few minutes after supper. 

“Okay. Patrol on Thursday night?”

“Sounds good. Have a great day, _mon minou_.” She flashed him a smile and jumped off the roof, money safely clenched in her fist. She made her way back towards Collège Françoise Dupont, landing a block away. With a quick glance around to be sure she was alone, she detransformed.

“That didn’t take long,” Tikki said as she materialized.

“No, I was just getting the money from him.” Marinette counted it quickly to figure out how much she had to work with, whistling softly. Chat had definitley gone overboard, but she supposed she wasn’t surprised by that. At least she had more than enough to rent a locker and buy a half-decent lock. 

“This is a very practical plan,” Tikki said, landing on Marinette’s shoulder. “Perhaps if Master Fu had done something similar, you wouldn’t be in this situation.”

“Yeah, maybe.” Marinette put the money away, fished out a cookie for Tikki to take into her purse, and started walking towards the school. Not having the miracle box in her bedroom would be a huge weight off her shoulders; she’d had a couple of nightmares last night where Hawkmoth figured out where it was and murdered her parents trying to get in. She was grateful that Chat had come up with the idea of a locker, and looked forward to being able to take the miracle box somewhere else tonight.

The morning dragged by. She was relieved when the bell finally rang. Alya grabbed her hand and squeezed it, and Alix, Mylène, Rose and Juleka all gave Marinette smiles and winks when Marinette glanced their way. Marinette smiled back at them and stood up. She was excited to have lunch with Adrien, but she was also apprehensive. The sight of Adrien’s smile when he turned around helped to ease her nerves.

“Ready?” he asked. “I thought we could buy some food and go sit outside and enjoy the sun.”

“That sounds perfect,” Marinette said happily, joining him. Thankfully Rose and Juleka were distracting Lila, and Chloé and Sabrina had left the room the instant the bell rang, so Marinette was able to leave the school with him unimpeded.

They stopped at a nearby store to buy some sandwiches and drinks and then headed for the park. The grass was dry if they sat in the sun, which Marinette didn’t mind at all. She sat down and placed her meal next to her. Adrien sat down too, letting out a sigh as he leaned back on his hands and turned his face up to the sun, much as she had earlier. That reminded her of Chat’s comment and she had to repress a giggle. Right now Adrien was the one who looked like a cat.

“Gosh that feels nice. I could curl up and go to sleep right here,” Adrien remarked.

“I think we’d be missed,” Marinette said, which was unfortunate. She was getting used to getting by on considerably less sleep, but it wasn’t an ideal situation.

“Yeah. I have Chinese lessons after school anyway. Nathalie would have a heart attack if I skipped,” Adrien said.

“I guess your lessons are pretty important for your future,” she said.

Adrien huffed. “Well, they are for the future my father has planned out for me anyway.”

“Does that future not align with what you want?” Marinette asked cautiously, watching him out of the corner of her eye.

“I don’t know. Père wants me to take over the company someday… or at least, I assume that’s what he wants. He’s never really discussed it with me, but he’s made reference to the fact that he wants me to take business in university.” Adrien sighed, rolling his shoulders. 

“But you’re not interested in design, are you?” Marinette said.

“Not really. I’ve never been able to create something like you.” He turned to her with a smile that made her breath catch. “Someone like you should really be the person taking over my father’s company, Marinette.”

“Th-that’s… well…” Flustered, Marinette pulled her sandwich into her lap and busied herself with opening it. She hoped that Adrien couldn’t see how hard her hands were shaking.

“However, that’s supposing my father actually decides to retire,” Adrien added wryly. “At this rate, it wouldn’t surprise me if his plan is to just live forever.”

“If that happens, then you can do whatever you want with your life,” Marnette pointed out.

“I don’t even know what I would do. I assume you’re planning to become a designer?”

Marinette nodded. “I’d like to. It’s always been my dream. I want to follow it if I can.” She picked up her sandwich but didn’t take a bite just yet. She was lucky, she realized. While her maman and papa had always expected her to help out in the bakery, they had never acted like Marinette had no choice but to take over the bakery for good when she grew up. Her papa teased sometimes that Marinette was going to have to marry someone to take over the bakery instead, but she also knew that her parents weren’t above selling the bakery someday if they had to.

She wondered if _Adrien_ would be interested in taking over the bakery, and promptly flushed so hard that she was pretty sure steam was rising from her ears.

“It’s really cool that you already know what you want to do. I wish I was like that,” Adrien said. He looked at her again and frowned. “Are you okay?”

“Fine. Just need a drink,” Marinette said quickly, grabbing her drink. She took a desperate gulp. Adrien probably wouldn’t want to work in a bakery, but _Chat_ sure might. He’d made a couple of comments here and there after Marinette’s papa had been akumatized that had led her to believe he wouldn’t mind that all. 

And those kinds of thoughts were _not_ helping her to cool off.

“If it’s too warm out here, we can go inside. I wouldn’t want you to get a sunburn,” he said.

Marinette shook her head. “No. The sun is really nice, actually. I think I’m just hungry.” This time she took a bite of her sandwich. 

“I guess we should eat. We don’t want to run out of time.” Adrien picked up his own sandwich and opened it. Luckily, that gave Marinette a moment to calm herself down and forcibly wrench her traitorous brain away from any thoughts of blond boys working in the bakery kitchen.

“I’m sure you’ll be able to figure out what you want to do,” she said, and Adrien glanced at her. “Not everyone knows at our age. And frankly… even if your father does want you to take over the business, or even if he just wants you to stay as a model for his business, you’re not obligated to do that. You are your own person, Adrien. I think it’s really admirable that you’re so young and you already have so much experience at being a model, but if that’s not what you want to do for the rest of your life then you shouldn’t. You should do whatever makes you happy.”

“Thanks Marinette,” Adrien said quietly, and she nodded. Their conversation gradually turned to lighter topics as they finished their meal in peace.


	13. Domestic

Shortly before dinner, Marinette found her moment to slip out. Her maman was upstairs making dinner, her papa was in the bakery's kitchen working on a special order for Alya's mother, and there were no customers in the bakery so her papa could listen for anyone who came in. She hurried outside, transformed, and ran several blocks to a gym that wasn't near their school or the bakery and, she hoped, wasn't close to Chat's house either. There, she found an alley, detransformed and walked inside. The employee behind the counter looked at her with open skepticism when she announced that she wanted to rent a locker.

"You over the age of sixteen?" he asked.

"Yes," Marinette said without blinking an eye. "I have cash. I just need a locker in the general area, not the women's locker room." She pulled out several notes and waved them in the air. The employee eyed the cash, then shrugged.

"Alright then. You gotta sign up for a membership if you want the locker, and a permanent locker rental is extra." He proceeded to rattle off a bunch of extra rules as Marinette began filling out the form, to which she listened with half an ear. The employee didn't know it, but he never had to worry about her membership being paid for on time. Nor did he have to worry about anyone keeping contraband inside the locker.

She paid the membership for a full year, figuring that it was money well spent even if she and Chat came up with some other solution in the meantime, and took the slip of paper with her new locker number written on it. The general area was quiet, which was exactly what she needed. She opened the locker and slid the miracle box inside. A strange feeling welled up inside of her as she shut the locker door, equal parts guilt and relief. She felt terrible for leaving the kwamis, but she really did think this was the best short-term solution.

"It's okay, Marinette," Tikki whispered, obviously sensing Marinette's distress. "Waayz and everyone else would understand, and it's not like you're leaving them here forever, right?"

"Right," Marinette murmured, sliding the lock into place. It had cost her a fortune, but she hadn't wanted to skimp. She locked it and then slid one of the keys around her neck; she'd gotten two, and had strung both on a cord. Chat would get the other tomorrow night.

She patted the locker door and then turned and left, quickly returning back home. She walked in on quite the domestic scene: her parents were now preparing dinner together, and her papa was holding up a piece of pasta for her maman to taste. Sabine obediently bit into the pasta and chewed, nodding approvingly. Tom grinned proudly and pulled his wife in for a quick kiss, which ended only when the pot started to boil over. Marinette giggled as her papa rushed to save the pasta, and her maman shot her a wink.

"How was Alya?" Sabine asked.

"She's good. Really appreciated the book I lent her," Marinette lied, moving over to wash her hands. Sometimes she hated lying to her parents, and she especially hated how good she'd gotten at it. But it was a necessary evil. Thank goodness her maman and Alya didn't get to talk that much, or Sabine would surely have noticed that Marinette didn't see Alya nearly as often as she pretended that she did.

"That's good, but I hope you don't need that book for your own homework tonight," Sabine said.

Marinette shook her head. "Nope. I already finished what I needed to do," she said, which was, at least, the truth. Madame Bustier had given them half an hour of free time at the end of the day. Alya had spent the time working on the Ladyblog; she was furiously editing the pictures she'd taken during Sunday's akuma battle in order to get them up on the site – apparently, she had bribed Nora to stay with Ella and Etta so that she could get away to the fight. Marinette had worked on some of her homework and had actually managed to finish a good chunk of it for once.

"That's my girl," Tom said, setting down a bowl of pasta with a flourish. "Dinner is served, my ladies!"

Sabine chuckled and kissed him on the cheek while Marinette concealed a wince. Damn that cat. It wasn't right that her knee-jerk reaction was to feel strangely about anyone else calling her "my lady" and it was all his fault. Luckily, her parents didn't notice her reaction. They both sat down and Sabine dished up the pasta.

"Now Marinette, tell us all about your two dates with Adrien," Sabine said.

" _Two_ dates!" Tom exclaimed.

"Maman," Marinette groaned, covering her face.

"I didn't know there were two dates," Tom said indignantly. "You said she went out with him on Sunday, but -"

"She also had lunch with him today in the park." Sabine sounded like she was trying not to giggle. When Marinette peeked between her fingers, she saw that her maman had a grin that stretched from ear to ear.

"How do you know that?" Marinette demanded.

Sabine gave in and laughed. "Madame Berger saw the two of you and came over to tell me about it."

Damn. Marinette hadn't stopped to consider that some of the older, more gossipy clients of the bakery might see her and Adrien. She reddened and stared fixedly at her plate, knowing that her maman and papa were exchanging grins and winking at each other. It wasn't like she was ashamed of having been seen with Adrien, far from it. No, it was more the fact that her parents were now going to try to get every little detail out of her. They wouldn't believe her even if she told them that there was nothing much to tell, which was the honest truth.

"Nothing happened," she grumbled, deciding to give it a shot. "I told you that our lunch together on Sunday got interrupted by the akuma, so he asked if I wanted to have lunch today to make up for it. That's all."

Tom looked at her knowingly. "And the fact that he enjoys spending time with you enough that he wanted to make up for it means nothing, huh?"

"Adrien and I are friends. I would hope that means he enjoys my company," Marinette said stiffly, scooping up a heaping forkful of pasta and shoving it in her mouth. She did _not_ want to tell her parents that her heart was confused between two boys. They'd definitely ask questions, and if she got flustered enough she might let something slip. They would never let her live it down if she admitted that she might be feeling something for Chat Noir. In fact, that just might be enough to get her papa akumatized again.

"Aw, Marinette. You don't have to be embarrassed. We're just happy for you," Sabine said. "I know you've been wanting to get closer to Adrien for a while now."

Marinette eyed her maman suspiciously as she swallowed. "Well, Adrien is my friend. His schedule is so busy that it's hard to spend time with him, so yes. I have."

"Right. Your friend," Sabine said with a sly smile. "Did he kiss you?"

"Maman!"

"Did he try to hold your hand?" Tom asked.

"Papa!"

"Did he mention wanting to take over the bakery?" Sabine said, her eyes twinkling, and Marinette's face _burned_. Both her parents started laughing AND Marinette decided to concede defeat. She grabbed her fork and her plate and fled, retreating upstairs to her bedroom.

"Oh my god, that was so embarrassing," she groaned, kicking the door shut.

Tikki emerged from Marinette's pocket, giggling. "Oh, Marinette, they're just teasing. They don't mean it."

"All the same, I am never inviting Adrien over here again. If Maman or Papa asks him about taking over the bakery, I might spontaneously combust and then you'd have to find a new Ladybug," Marinette said. She set the plate down and then pressed her hands to her hot cheeks. 

"We can't have that," Tikki said mock-seriously. 

"You know, you're not helping," Marinette muttered, sinking down into desk chair. Sighing, she picked up her fork and stabbed a pasta noodle. Tikki drifted over, curious about the sweet-spicy sauce covering the noodles, and between the two of them they were able to finish off the plate. Then Marinette set it aside - she'd take the dishes downstairs later, when her parents weren't around - and opened up her computer to do some homework.

She was midway through a science worksheet when her phone rang. Marinette picked it up, realizing that it was Alya. Well, there went any hope of her actually getting any homework done tonight. She hit the button to answer and opened her mouth to say -

"Did you see the new Ladyblog post?!" 

Marinette smiled. "Hello to you too," she said, minimizing her research and opening up a new tab. Truth be told, the Ladyblog wasn't her favorite thing to look at. Reading the articles often made Marinette feel paranoid; she had the tendency to hyperfixate on any detail Alya stumbled across that could even slightly lead back to Marinette. But Alya usually didn't take no for an answer when she posted something new.

"I've got the pictures and the article from Sunday's battle up, plus something extra," Alya said excitedly.

"Something extra?" Marinette repeated, mystified.

"I stuck around after the battle and managed to catch pictures of Chat Noir leaving! It was so cute, Mari, he was carrying an umbrella and everything!"

The words sense, but Marinette was no longer listening. She stared, speechless and wide eyes, at the photo of Chat Noir. Alya had captured him perfectly in mid-leap between tow buildings. His blond hair, gleaming green eyes, and gold bell stood out against the dark clouds - and so did the umbrella that he was holding. A very familiar umbrella, hand-painted with ocean scenery. It must have been difficult to hold it open while jumping across rooftops, but that had never stopped Chat. He was still using the umbrella even though he was soaked.

_“I remembered you didn’t have the chance to grab it, so I went back and asked. The employees had it behind the counter. Actually, it came in handy. It was really pouring by then and I was able to use it on the way home.”_

"Oh my god," Marinette whispered.


	14. Compass

"Marinette? Hey, Marinette! Are you there?"

Marinette heard Alya's voice as though from a great distance; she knew she should put the phone back up to her ear, or at least put it on speakerphone, and respond, but she just couldn't. All she was capable of in that moment was sitting there and staring at her computer as so many seemingly random puzzle pieces suddenly came together to form an answer. Her eyes traced the image of Chat holding her umbrella again and again, while Adrien's words kept ringing in her ears.

"Marinette!" another voice hissed. It was accompanied by a sharp pinch to her arm. Marinette jolted and jerked her head around to stare at Tikki. Tikki gestured pointedly at the phone, where it sounded like Alya was growing increasingly closer to a heart attack. There was a shrill note of panic in Alya’s voice as she cried out Marinette’s name again.

"Marinette! Are you okay?!"

"Fine," Marinette croaked at last. "I'm - sorry, Alya, Maman was talking to me. I have to go help Papa out in the kitchen."

“God you scared me,” Alya said. “You just stopped answering! I thought an akuma had gotten you!”

“Nope,” Marinette said weakly. Just the realization of a lifetime. A realization that would literally make Alya’s whole year. Thank god Marinette hadn’t blurted anything out.

"Oh, okay," Alya said. "Text me later once you get the chance to look at the blog, okay?"

"Sure," Marinette said, and then she hung up. She slowly set her phone down, wondering if she would ever be able to tell Alya that a) her theory about Adrien being Chat Noir was totally right, and b) Alya was the one who had helped Ladybug to figure that out.

"Marinette, what's going on? You're completely white and look like you're going to pass out," Tikki said worriedly.

Silently, Marinette pointed to the screen. Tikki looked at it, her little face scrunched up in confusion. It was obvious that Tikki didn't see what Marinette saw, or maybe she just didn't realize the significance - or maybe she did and was just downplaying her reaction, because of course Tikki knew who Chat Noir was already. No wonder Tikki had always been so confident that things would work themselves out. She had known all along that Marinette was not in love with two people. 

Oh no. Marinette was in love with _one_ stupid cat who had _somehow made her fall for him twice_. She was never going to hear the end of this! But she couldn’t dwell on that right now, or she’d give herself a heart attack for real.

"Adrien is Chat Noir," Marinette said. Saying the words out loud made them all the more real, but what she hadn't counted on was Tikki's reaction. Tikki choked, her eyes darting from Marinette to the computer. It was the most obvious panic that Marinette had ever seen Tikki in, and she watched her kwami with fascination as Tikki stuttered.

"Wh-what?! Th-that's crazy! Marinette, where… where did you get an idea like that?"

"Adrien said he went back to the store and got my umbrella, and that he used it on the way home. And here's a photo of Chat... with my umbrella... using it on the way home," Marinette said flatly. Tikki’s eyes darted around as she sought out an answer.

Finally, she said unconvincingly, "M-maybe Chat Noir was being nice and bringing the umbrella to Adrien!"

"Don't you think Adrien would've mentioned that?" Marinette said, narrowing her eyes. "Besides, what reason would Chat have to go get my umbrella?"

"He might've run by the shop after the battle and recognized the umbrella as yours," Tikki said quickly.

"Tikki... I have never used that umbrella before. Sunday was the first day I took it out of my closet. There's no way that Chat saw me with it. He couldn't have known that it was mine unless Chat Noir is Adrien. And even if somehow Chat did know, he wouldn’t have given it to Adrien to give to me. Chat knows where I live; he would’ve swung by and given it back to me himself…”

She trailed off, realizing why Chat hadn’t done just that the night after the battle. He could’ve concocted a story about seeing Marinette out and about with the umbrella that Sunday and she would’ve believed it over the alternative. Having Adrien show up with the umbrella after Chat had it was much more damning, though Chat couldn’t have known Alya would be there to take that photo in a stroke of unbelievably bad luck. 

But Chat wouldn’t have had the time, would he? No wonder he sometimes seemed so short on time during the day. It used to frustrate her before he admitted he had a job on top of school, and that his father was strict. Reframing that information in the context of what she knew about Adrien, _strict_ wasn’t the appropriate word. Going to lunch with her that day probably hadn’t been on Adrien’s schedule, much less an akuma battle that had easily taken a couple of hours. Then he’d swung by the café on top of all that. Gabriel must have been furious.

"Marinette..." Tikki was opening and closing her mouth, obviously searching for an answer that she didn’t have, and that's when Marinette knew for certain that she was right.

"Wow. Adrien is Chat. I can't believe it." Marinette leaned back in her chair, staring at the ceiling. 

Tikki sighed heavily. "I guess there's no point in trying to convince you that you're wrong."

"Nope. Gosh, so many things suddenly make sense! Like why Chat wasn't around when Gorizilla was attacking... no wonder Adrien was so willing to jump off that roof. Of course he knew I'd catch him. Or why Chat just happened to be on the train when Max’s mom got akumatized! And why he was already in the school back when Mylène was akumatized… and why he wasn’t around when Aspik was…”

Marinette frowned at that last one, suddenly seeing her conversation with Chat in a new light. He'd been putting himself down on _both_ counts, hadn't he? It would be just like him to be ashamed that he hadn’t been able to help Ladybug as Adrien or Aspik... and then walk away from their conversation thinking that Ladybug blamed Chat Noir for not being there. She had managed to convince him otherwise, or so he claimed, but still.

"Yeah, Aspik wasn't one of Chat's better ideas. But I suppose he was eager to help you as his civilian self too,” said Tikki. 

"That sounds like him," Marinette muttered with a shake of her head. She supposed she couldn’t blame Adrien for that one: Ladybug wouldn’t have thought badly of Adrien not wanting to help, because she had never tried to hide how dangerous fighting akumas could be, but it would’ve stuck out as an anomaly. Everyone she had given a miraculous to thus far had been beyond excited. Adrien, to his credit, might have been worried Ladybug would wonder why he was the odd one out.

After a moment, Tikki cleared her throat. "Don't take this the wrong way, Marinette, but why aren't you freaking out? I was sure that the day you found out who Chat was, you'd be screaming into your pillow all night."

Marinette half-smiled at that, because Tikki wasn’t wrong, but… "I don't know. I guess... it just... it makes sense?" She sat forward, looking at the computer again. "I don't know why I didn't see it before. Chat couldn't be anyone else. Of _course_ it's Adrien."

Because Adrien, Chat, had been her guiding light for the past year. Ladybug or Marinette, he was the compass that guided her forward. As Adrien, he had been at her side through the whole Lila debacle. Without Adrien knowing the truth about Lila, Marinette didn’t know what she would have done. Not to mention, all of the times where a simple smile from him had been enough to make her whole day. His kindness and steadfast cheerfulness were something Marinette admired.

As Chat, he had been there since day one. Chat was the person that Ladybug most heavily leaned on, and for good reason. They might bicker, as all partners and friends did, but at the end of the day she knew without a doubt that Chat would _always_ be there. He was the one person she trusted more than anyone else. He always knew what to say to make her feel better, and loyalty and sweetness and even his lame sense of humor were things she cherished.

Adrien was Chat. Her sweet kitty. She couldn’t believe that she hadn’t put two and two together before.

“It was the miraculous magic,” Tikki said, and Marinette glanced at her.

“What?”

“That’s why you couldn’t figure it out. I mean, I know that you were trying not to – but the magic helped too. Unfortunately, even magic has limits. You just had too many clues,” Tikki explained. “Plus you’re the guardian now, and you have the right to know Chat’s identity. The magic may have realized that and eased up.” She sounded faintly annoyed about that.

“So… does that mean Adrien probably won’t figure it out?” Marinette said slowly.

“Well, he might eventually. Like I said, even magic can only be stretched so far. But it would probably take a lot more for him to put two and two together,” Tikki replied. “It would have to be something really obvious.”

Something really obvious, like Adrien seeing Ladybug leave a gift on his bed that was clearly from Marinette. Her smile faded as she thought about Chat Blanc again. How had that happened? _Why_ had that happened? Could she and Chat really never be together? She’d always believed Adrien had told someone who Ladybug was, but Chat would never do that.

What the hell had happened?


	15. Ultimate Power

“What are you thinking?” Tikki asked some time later. Marinette had abandoned her homework, instead relocating to her balcony with a blanket, and was staring out at the city.

“I’m thinking that I don’t understand what happened,” Marinette replied. “With Chat Blanc, I mean. If Adrien is Chat, he knows exactly how important our secret identities are. He _never_ would have told anyone who I was. So I guess that means I’ve been wrongly blaming Adrien all along.” She sighed a bit. “And that it means someone must have found out some other way, and either that someone was Hawkmoth or someone who told Hawkmoth, either on purpose or by accident.”

“That’s a lot of thinking,” Tikki said. She flew over to sit on Marinette’s lap, and Marinette obligingly wrapped the blanket around Tikki too. Neither of them liked to be cold, the night air was chilly.

“I know. I always had the impression that Chat got akumatized because of me, because he loved me. I thought maybe it was because he found out my identity even. But that doesn’t make any sense now… I feel like a lot of time passed between when Adrien found out who I was and when Chat got akumatized in that timeline.” Or maybe that was just wishful thinking on her part?

“Hmm.” Tikki looked thoughtful. “Maybe you’re wrong. Maybe Chat getting akumatized wasn’t about you at all. Maybe it was about his father. Gabriel isn’t a very nice person.”

That was an underestimatation, though Marinette didn’t feel the need to point that out. “I just wish I could know,” she said wistfully. “I want Chat to know who I am too, but I don’t want to put him into danger by telling him.”

“Oh,” said Tikki, and nothing else. Marinette winced, having guessed that Tikki wouldn’t be happy about that.

“Is – is that okay? I know it’s dangerous, but –” She was ready to launch into a full list as to why she felt that Chat deserved to know, the least of which was that this was yet another secret and Marinette was _done_ with keeping secrets from him. All it had ever done was cause pain and misery on both their parts.

“I won’t lie and say the idea thrills me, because as you said yourself it’s dangerous, but Marinette… _you_ are the guardian now. You get the final say in what happens with the miraculous and the holders,” Tikki said, twisting to look up at Marinette. “I mean, I know you like to say that you and Chat are co-guardians, and certainly that can be the case if that’s what you want, but I just want to make sure you don’t feel obligated to tell him. You found out by accident; you are not required to tell Chat who you are just because of that.”

“That’s true. I guess I didn’t think of it like that,” Marinette admitted. “It just feels dishonest to _not_ tell him. Like, it’s not fair that I know and he doesn’t, especially after he’s wanted to know all this time. And as for Hawkmoth… well, Hawkmoth proved that if he wants to know who we are, he could make it happen with another slimy scheme.”

“True,” Tikki said, making a face. “And for what it’s worth, I don’t believe you would be putting Chat in danger. Things are different this time around, right?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, in the alternate timeline, Adrien found out who you were first. That probably means either you found out his identity by accident after the fact or, more likely, he confessed who he was. This time around, you found out first and you’re the one confessing. So things are already pretty different,” Tikki said wisely. “Whatever akumatized Chat in that other timeline, the two of you have always been strongest when you face things together.”

“We have, haven’t we?” A fond smile crossed Marinette’s face. 

“Plus, I suppose there are advantages,” Tikki went on. “You two can cover for each other in your civilian forms and you won’t have to worry quite as much about detransforming during or after akuma battles. I know sometimes it’s been difficult finding separate places.”

“Tell me about it,” Marinette muttered, remembering numerous occasions where she and Chat had come within seconds of detransforming in front of each other. They had always managed to avoid a reveal, but sometimes it was as close as both of them shutting their eyes and shuffling out of an alley in opposite directions.

“So if you want to do it, you have my blessing,” Tikki said, smiling. “I’ve always known that it was only a matter of time until one of you found out. Realistically, secrets like this can’t be kept forever. At least this way you’re finding out because you wanted to, and not in the middle of a battle.”

“That would be awful,” Marinette said with a shudder. She couldn’t say she had wanted to find out Chat’s identity. In the beginning, she had been adamant about not knowing. But as time went on, and especially after Master Fu was out pof the picture, she hadn’t not wanted to know either. Finding out by accident seemed like the happiest middle ground she was going to get. 

Tikki nodded in agreement. “It is. Plagg and I have had holders who found out that way in the past. Historically, it doesn’t go well.”

“What happened?” Marinette asked, curious.

“In the worst scenario, my holder was so angry when they saw who Plagg’s holder was that they tried to steal the Black Cat miraculous in order to get access to the ultimate power,” Tikki said quietly, and Marinette gasped. “It was only pure luck that enabled Plagg’s holder to get away. The guardian at the time ultimately intervened and took the Ladybug miraculous away. I never did find out what happened to that particular holder.”

“Wow,” Marinette breathed. “Tikki, that’s terrible!”

“It was pretty bad. I knew that wouldn’t happen in this situation, but sometimes the reveal can be traumatizing. I didn’t want that for you,” Tikki said. “And with that in mind, how are you going to tell Adrien?”

“Uh…” Marinette was still stuck on the story Tikki had told. It took her a moment to flip her brain over. “I have no idea?”

“Are you going to do it as Ladybug or as Marinette?” Tikki asked.

“As… Marinette…?” Marinette said uncertainy. “Does it really matter?”

“I would go with whichever way you feel most comfortable.”

“Then I guess I’ll do it as Ladybug tomorrow night on patrol,” Marinette said. It was kind of tempting to transform and call Chat. She knew he would meet her; he always did. But that wasn’t fair, was it? Adrien had to be tired. He’d had lessons right after school, and hadn’t he said something to Nino about a party of some kind his father had wanted him to attend after all that? If Adrien was even home by now, and there was a chance he wasn’t, he was probably resting.

“And what are you going to say?” Tikki pressed.

“I… I don’t know.” In spite of Tikki’s reassurances that everything was different, Marinette’s stomach still fluttered with nerves over the idea that she could say something wrong and get Chat akumatized. If only they knew for sure what had happened… if only there was a way to _see_ \- 

Oh.

“Marinette? What’s going on?” Tikki said suspiciously. “You have a weird look on your face.”

“I just –” Marinette was cut off by what was unmistakably an explosion in the distance. Both she and Tikki looked up to see plumes of smoke rising from the direction of the Eiffel Tower.

“You may get the chance to tell Chat sooner than you think,” Tikki said.

“Ugh, we don’t need this tonight. Stupid Hawkmoth!” Marinette groaned and let her blanket slide from her shoulders as she stood up, already resigned to the inevitable.

“When you go to tell him, just be clear and direct,” Tikki said, flying up in front of Marinette. “Don’t forget, it’s Chat and it’s Adrien and he already loves you.”

“Right,” Marinette said. She set the locker key for Chat down on her table. “Tikki, spots on!”

Ladybug grabbed the key, threw out her yoyo and started making her way towards the scene of the crime, so to speak. As she grew closer, it got harder to see. The smoke was heavy in the air. She landed on a rooftop and looked around, squinting. The first thing that came to her mind was fire, but that seemed unlikely when she couldn’t smell anything burning. But what else caused smoke?

“LB!” Chat’s voice called out, somewhere to her left, and Ladybug turned automatically.

“I’m here!” she said loudly. 

A hand grabbed hers a moment later and then Chat appeared. “I saw the akuma,” he said. “They looked like an old-fashioned chimney sweep.”

A chimney sweep? Ladybug blinked for a second, baffled, before shaking it off. “We’re gonna need help,” she said instead, thrusting the locker key in his direction. “Care to go?”

“Seriously?” Chat said, looking delighted.

“You’ve seen the akuma. I haven’t. So you have a better idea of what miraculous will help then I do,” Ladybug said, unable to keep from smiling as she pressed the key into his hands. She told him quickly where the locker was, adding, “Go. I’ll see what I can find out; maybe I can figure out what the akumatized object is.”

“Be careful,” Chat told her, before he turned on his heel and ran off. Ladybug smiled after him before grabbing her yoyo and heading into the smoke.


	16. Friends

Okay, so it turned out that a smoke akuma was _really_ annoying. Ladybug threw herself down low and felt something pass over her head, mere inches from her scalp. She lingered near the ground, breathing in mouthfuls of slightly less smoky air. When she thought the akuma was far enough away, she got up on her hands and knees and crawled forward. It was easy to lose her way in the smoke, but she had discovered that she had to keep moving forward regardless. The akuma had the ability to see through smoke, but it couldn't move _outside_ the smoke.

She emerged into a swath of clean air with a deep gasp, glancing back at the heavy cloud of smoke behind her. She hadn't seen anyone else inside it, so she had no idea what had happened to the poor people who might have inadvertently wandered inside. Chances were, they hadn't fared well. It was only the suit that had kept her from passing out, and even then she had to keep stopping to cough. Not only was it frustrating, but it made it hard to focus on the battle, which was definitely giving the akuma an edge. There had to be a better way, but what?

"My Lady!" Chat's boots hit the ground in front of her and Ladybug sat back on her heels in relief, but one look at his panic-stricken face immediately made her worry.

"Chat, what's wrong?!" she exclaimed, clumsily getting to her feet.

"I went to find help, but I can't find her!" he said, sounding frantic. "She wasn't in her room or at the school or any of her usual places. Do you think she got caught by the akuma?"

"Who?" Ladybug said, but she had a sneaking suspicion. Adrien's circle of friends was even smaller than hers, and there was only one other person who Chat thought had been given a miraculous before and who hadn't been outed to Hawkmoth...

"Marinette!" Chat exclaimed, confirming her fear.

Ladybug sighed, her shoulders slumping slightly. "Oh, _Chaton_. Marinette is fine."

"You don't know that. She could've been caught by the akuma!" Chat looked ready to charge into the smoke and hunt the akuma down until it gave him Marinette back. It was honestly touching.

"Yes, I do," Ladybug said gently but firmly. "Believe me, I _know_." She stared deeply into his eyes, willing him to believe her. Now wasn't the moment to tell him, she knew that much. Chat didn't deserve to have that dropped on his head mid-battle. She would tell him afterwards.

"... Okay," Chat said reluctantly, clearly still worried but willing to believe in her as always. "But the only miraculous I took was the Mouse. I thought that Multimouse might be able to shrink down and operate beneath the smoke."

It was a sound theory, and at any other time it would've worked. Ladybug shook her head. "I have a better idea. By any chance, do you have your power-ups with you?"

"Of course," he said.

"Excellent. I think it's time to test out that orange potion," Ladybug said, rubbing her hands together with glee. The power-ups weren't easy to create, so she and Chat had kept themselves from experimenting even though they desperately wanted to. And they had mutually agreed that they would only use the power-ups during battles which were truly necessary. Ladybug was pretty sure this battle qualified, since she couldn't see nor breathe inside the smoke and the akuma wasn't coming out of it.

"Excellent," Chat said, eyes gleaming. "Be right back."

"Yup." Ladybug headed off in the opposite direction, dropping down to the street and ducking into an empty alley. "Spots off."

"What's up?" Tikki said as she appeared, confused. 

"Chat and I decided we needed some extra juice." Marinette reached into her purse and pulled out the carton of mini macarons. 

Tikki's eyes lit up. "Oh, which one are you going with it?"

"Orange," Marinette said, handing Tikki the macaron. She watched in fascination as Tikki gulped it down and began to glow. The spots on Tikki's body turned various shades of orange, from so pale it looked white to a deep orange that bordered on red. 

"Space Tikki!" Tikki said, giving Marinette a wide grin. Marinette smiled back.

"Alright... Space Tikki, spots on!"

As always, a transformation with a power-up felt just a little bit different from usual. When Ladybug opened her eyes, she found that she was wearing a helmet much like an astronaut would wear. When she glanced over her shoulder, she saw that the back of her suit had an additional attachment. It looked a little like a backpack, but there were no straps and it couldn't be removed. It went up over her shoulders, giving her suit the appearance of shoulderpads. Ladybug ran her fingers over it, befuddled as to what use it could have, but ultimately shrugged. At least it wasn't heavy.

She found Chat waiting for her where they'd been before. Like her, he had gained a helmet and the backpack-like attachment - though his was green, not black like hers was. His black suit glimmered strangely in the sunlight, and, as she drew nearer, she realized that it was because silvery planets, comets and meteors had been etched into his suit, like fine embroidery. They trailed down his legs, up across his back and chest - it was beautiful. Awed, she reached out to touch and trace one of the patterns.

"Did you notice your black spots are now stars?" he asked.

"Huh?" Ladybug looked at her arm and realized that he was right.

"Pretty cool," he said with a grin.

"Yeah, but what are these for?" She motioned to their backs.

"I'm not completely sure, but I'd guess they function like a jetpack," Chat said after a thoughtful pause. "If we were in space, we wouldn't be able to walk around. Even your yoyo wouldn't be of much help. We'd need something to get us from one place to another."

"I know we agreed not to experiment, but someday you and I are using the Horse miraculous to go into space and play around," Ladybug murmured. 

"Won't hear any argument from me!" He grabbed his baton and extended it, setting one edge against the roof. With his free hand, he wrapped an arm around Ladybug's waist. Then he pushed the button to extend his baton further, launching them both into the air. Their momentum tipped them forward over the cloud of smoke; Chat minimized his baton, and they both fell directly into the middle of it.

Fighting was _much_ easier when Ladybug could breathe and see what she was doing. She and Chat weren't carrying oxygen tanks, but they might as well have been: she could breathe freely, and it was incredible. She launched herself forward, letting her yoyo snap out. It zigzagged through the air faster than the eye could follow, and the force of it dispelled a little of the smoke. For a split second, the shadow of the akuma became visible.

"Chat!" she yelled.

Chat leaped forward, but the akuma cackled and dodged him. Ladybug swore under her breath and darted to her right, keeping her yoyo moving as fast as she could. But it wasn't enough.

"Lucky Charm!"

An electric fan fell into her hands. Small, not nearly large enough to get rid of the whole cloud, but when aimed just right at the akuma... Ladybug gave a vicious smile and feinted to her right, then went left. She held the fan right out in front of her and pushed the switch. The smoke billowed out around her, and - there. She had just enough time to register's the akuma's shocked expression about five feet away. Ladybug swung the fan up and directed it at him. The akuma let out a squall of protest and flailed its arms as the smoke was whipped away from it.

And then Chat was there, bursting out of the smoke and tackling the akume to the ground. Ladybug rushed over, glancing quickly over the akuma, and spotted the one thing that looked out of place: a lighter, tucked into the akuma's pocket. She grabbed the lighter and snapped it in half, breathing a sigh of relief as the akuma fluttered out and tried to escape.

"Let's end this," she whispered, snapping her yoyo out. "I free you from evil! Gotcha. Bye bye, little butterfly!" She drew her finger over the back of her yoyo and watched as the now white butterfly flew up out of the dissipating smoke; the akuma dissolved back into a confused-looking elderly man, who Chat hastily climbed off of.

"Here, Sir, let me help you up," he said awkwardly.

"Miraculous Ladybug!" Ladybug threw the fan into the air. The burst of red light cleared away the remainder of the smoke and, she was relieved to notice, restored dozens of people to the streets of Paris.

Chat sent the elderly man on his way with a few comforting words, then turned to her with his fist out. Ladybug smiled and tapped her knuckles to his.

"Bien joué!" they chorused, then made their way up to the nearest roof. 

"Well, that was fun," Chat said as he landed. "I suppose I should the Mouse miraculous back now." His eyebrows furrowed, his adrenaline fading. "I should check on Marinette too. Just to make sure she's okay."

This boy. Ladybug took a deep breath. "You don't have to check on her, Chat."

"I really do," Chat said awkwardly. Which was understandable. So far as Ladybug knew, Chat and Marinette were not close. Had she not known what she did, his insistence would've both confused and flustered her. She probably would've insisted he take the Mouse miraculous back first, giving her time to scramble home.

But this time, with only two dots left, she didn't have to.

"You don't have to go find me, Chat," Ladybug whispered. "I'm right here."


	17. Designer

Chat cocked his head like he didn’t understand what she was saying. It seemed to take a solid thirty seconds and another beep from her earrings for the words to actually sink in, at which point his eyes went wide and his lips parted soundlessly. Ladybug didn’t know what to say. Any words she could’ve spoken dried up in her throat. They just stood there, staring blankly at each other, until her earrings gave one last, feeble beep.

Ladybug’s transformation dissolved in a flash of reddish orange light. Automatically, she brought her hands up to catch an exhausted Tikki. Transforming with a power-up always seemed to take more out of their kwamis than a regular transformation did, so Marinette quickly dug a cookie out of her purse. Fussing over Tikki gave her the chance to not look at Chat for a little bit.

When she finally gathered the courage to peek up at him, Chat had turned away. He had a hand up over his face, hiding his expression form her. Marinette couldn’t tell what he was feeling. Without thinking, she reached out and put a hand on his arm. Chat stiffened under her touch, which made her heart sink, but he turned back to look at her. His eyes were bright with tears and she couldn’t stay quiet any longer.

“Chat –”

“It’s you,” he breathed before she could get another word out. “It’s _you_ , Marinette, you’re my lady?”

Hearing him say that to Marinette’s face, as opposed to Ladybug’s mask, shook her deeper than she wanted to admit. She managed a shaky nod and said, “It’s me.”

“I can’t believe – all this time –” Chat’s hands landed on her shoulders, and then he was pulling her into a huge hug. Tikki flew off as Marinette sank into the hug gladly, wrapping her arms around his waist. It was a little awkward since Chat was still wearing his helmet, but it was worth it: any stray thoughts that Chat might have been disappointed or upset vanished when she felt how hard he was hugging her, so tightly that it actually hurt a little. Not that she ever would have told him that.

"It's okay," Marinette said softly when she realized he was trembling.

"I just... shit, no wonder I couldn't find Marinette. She was already beside me." Chat gave a short, shaky laugh. "And that time when you had all the miraculous with you -"

"I used the Fox to make you think you were seeing Marinette and Ladybug together," Marinette admitted, hoping that he wasn't mad. She'd thought it was a stroke of genius at the time.

"Of course you did." He laughed again and shook his head, pulling back to look at her. He just stared at her for a long moment, like he was trying to catalog the differences between her face and Ladybug's... or maybe he was trying to figure out how he hadn't seen it before. Marinette was content to let him look for as long as he wanted, because she was seizing her chance to do the same thing.

Even though the helmet, for the first time she could picture the face beneath the mask with perfect clarity. She had always wondered what color his eyes really were; that time they had swapped their miraculous had shown her that Chat really did have green eyes, because they were the same beautiful shade when he was Mister Bug. His hair color didn't change, but the style did. Adrien's hair was always perfectly styled, the sort of look that she imagined took a few minutes of work in the morning, whereas Chat's hair was messy and fell every which way, like he walked through wind storms all the time.

It must have been the magic breaking, because now she could see it when she looked at him. She could see _Adrien_. The knowledge that it really was him, and that she hadn't been wrong, hit her all over again, and it was Marinette's turn to laugh. The sound of her laugh seemed to jolt Chat out of whatever daze he had fallen into and he took a step back, frowning.

"I don't understand. You always said that you didn't want us to exchange identities as long as Hawkmoth was active. What changed?"

"Well... actually, it's because I figured out who you are," she admitted, deciding she might as well just throw it out there.

Chat's eyes bulged. "Wh-what?!"'

"Yeah. I take it you haven't seen the photos that Alya posted on the Ladyblog?" Marinette said.

"Uh, no. I was - busy," he said carefully.

Busy with his father. She wondered how he had gotten away to deal with the akuma attack, but shook the thought off in lieu of opening her phone and bringing up the pictures on the Ladyblog. Chat watched her curiously as she scrolled through until she found the photo she wanted. His jaw dropped when she showed it him, and then he slapped his face and groaned.

"Right?" Marinette said. "I swear, Alya has to be the luckiest person I know. She is always in the right place at the right time to get pictures that no one else would be able to get." She regarded the photo ruefully. Only Alya would've been able to take this photo, this _exact_ photo, that outed Ladybug and Chat Noir to each other. Someday, she hoped she could tell Alya that. It would probably make Alya's head explode.

"I didn't even know that she was there," Chat said, his shoulders slumping. "I didn't even think about it. And then I stupidly gave you back the umbrella as Adrien. I'm sorry, Marinette. I should've been more careful. I was already wet; I shouldn't have bothered with the umbrella."

"Hey, no. Chat, you couldn't have known that this would happen. I don't care how wet you were; of course you should've been using it," Marinette said sharply. "It was pouring rain outside." She crossed her arms and stared him down, daring him to say otherwise. Just for that, Adrien Agreste was shortly going to be getting his own hand-painted umbrella. She'd have to think about whether it would be green with black cat faces, or red with black spots. Knowing Adrien, knowing _Chat_ , he'd prefer the latter, though his father would probably have a heart attack at something so unfashionable.

"Okay, okay," Chat said, though he was smiling now. "And through that, you figured me out."

"It wasn't hard to put two and two together, and then Tikki confirmed it," she said, relaxing a little. “Now that I think about it, I probably won’t be able to use that umbrella again.”

“Why not?”

“Because Alya might recognize it too. We’re lucky she was so distracted by the idea of us having lunch together that she didn’t look at my umbrella very closely, but I’m sure she’s examined every inch of this photo and probably memorized the umbrella you’re holding just in case,” Marinette explained.

Chat drooped further. “And you hand-painted that, so it’s one of a kind. Marinette, I’m so –”

“Stop apologizing, _Chaton_. I don’t blame you,” Marinette said gently. Yeah, it sucked that she would never be able to show this particular umbrella off – but she was a designer. She could design and paint new umbrellas. She could even modify this one if she chose to. It wasn’t that big of a deal. She was just grateful she had never shown it to Alya before: Alya had a great memory for little things like that.

“I still feel bad,” Chat said softly. “You never wanted us to reveal our identities.”

“Well… I wouldn’t go that far,” Marinette replied. “I have been curious, but I knew it was dangerous. I didn’t want to be selfish… and you know, Tikki pointed out that I am the guardian now, so I can know who you are if I want to…”

“I guess that makes sense, but that still doesn’t explain why you told me who you are,” Chat said.

Marinette crossed her arms. “Of course I did. I didn’t want to have yet another secret to carry on my own. I’ve had enough of that. We’re partners _and_ we don’t have anyone else to rely on, so you should know everything that I do.” She stared him down, daring him to make an argument. 

When Master Fu had been there, the discrepancy between what she knew and what Chat knew hadn’t seemed so bad. If something happened to Ladybug, Chat would have been able to go to Master Fu for help. But it wasn’t like that now. The battle today had proven that. If an akuma took Ladybug out, she didn’t want Chat wasting his time by looking for Marinette to help.

“Okay, oaky. I’m not going to argue with you,” Chat said. “I just… wow. This is a lot to wrap my head around.”

“I know. It threw me for a loop too,” she admitted. “It’s okay if it’s too much. I didn’t really know how to break the news to you. I was originally going to do it tomorrow night during our patrol, but then this happened and I just couldn’t hold it in any longer and I hope you’re not mad that I just unloaded this on you and didn’t really ask if you wanted to know but –”

“Whoa, hey, it’s okay,” Chat said gently, seizing her shoulders. “Breathe, Mari.”

She gulped in air, suddenly close to tears for reasons she couldn’t even begin to identify. The past two months had just been a lot, what with Hawkmoth’s attack, their allies being exposed, Master Fu losing his memory, and Marinette officially becoming the guardian. While in one way she was relieved to know who Chat was, in another way it was yet another stresser on top of everything else.

“Do you want me to take you home? I promise to avoid Alya this time,” Chat said, which prompted a wet giggle from her. Marinette wiped her eyes and nodded. Chat picked her up, Tikki flew over to join them, and they jumped off the rooftop.


	18. Rare Pairs

They landed on her balcony and Chat set her down. The trip, short as it was, had made Marinette feel a little better. Paris was peaceful for the time being, and she hoped it would stay that way; they needed some time to talk that wouldn’t be interrupted by an akuma battle. She stepped away from her partner, looking at him curiously. He hadn’t said where he’d been before the battle.

“Do you have some time to talk or do you have to go right back?” she asked.

Chat considered, then shrugged and nodded. “I had just gotten home when the akuma attacked. My father and Nathalie think I’ve gone to bed for the night. Plagg, claws in!”

Watching him detransform took her breath away. There was a soft swell of yellowy green light and then it was Adrien standing on her balcony, wearing black dress pants and a white button-up shirt. His feet were bare and the collar of the shirt was open, meaning he’d probably just started undressing when the akuma attacked. Marinette imagined there was probably a tie laying on the floor of his bedroom somewhere, and dress shoes and socks that had been kicked across the room.

“I’m staaaaaaarving,” Plagg wailed dramatically. “I hate power-ups!”

“You’re so dramatic,” Tikki said before Marinette could open her mouth.

Plagg glared at her. “You don’t understand my pain.”

“I think the problem is that I understand a little too well,” Tikki shot back.

“Okay,” Marinette said loudly, sensing that this was going in a direction that would end in an outright argument. “I’m going to go get food for all of us.”

“Pigtails, you’re my favorite,” Plagg said.

“Hey, I feed you Camembert all the time!” Adrien objected. “If that’s the case, you’re getting cheddar next week. It’s a heck of a lot cheaper.”

“You should feed him cheese slices,” Tikki said wickedly.

Marinette crawled back into her room to the sound of Plagg howling protests and made her way downstairs, bringing her plate and utensils from earlier with her. It was quiet in the apartment, and she knew that meant her parents had gone back down to the bakery: there was always prep work to be done for the next morning. At least that meant she wouldn’t have to worry about them overhearing her and Adrien.

She set her dishes in the sink and noticed another plate on the counter, covered with wrap. There was a scrap of paper on top with her name on it. Marinette peeked under the wrap and smiled to see that it was a large piece of her papa’s famous chocolate cake. He’d probably left it for her as an apology for the teasing. It would be the perfect thing to share with Adrien.

She prepared two cups of tea, took some cheese from the fridge, and got two more cookies down for Tikki. Then, adding the cake and two forks to her tray, she carefully carried it all back upstairs. It was a little tricky getting it up onto her bed, but Marinette managed. This wasn’t her first time having a treat out on her balcony, and it wouldn’t be the last – though admittedly, she usually wasn’t carrying food for four.

“Adrien?” she called out, balancing on her bed.

His head appeared over the window. He blinked down at her, then reached down to grab the tray she was holding aloft. He lifted it up through the window and Marinette followed, realizing that it had gone quiet. When she looked around for Tikki and Plagg, she spotted the two of them cuddled together on the little table as peacefully as though they hadn’t been bickering moments before.

“You didn’t bring me cheese slices, did you?” Plagg said suspiciously, peering up at her with round green eyes.

“Of course not. I brought you some Gouda. Papa’s been experimenting with it lately,” Marinette said, picking up the pale cheese. She handed it to Plagg and gave the cookies Tikki, then sat on her lounge chair and beckoned Adrien to sit next to her.

“No idea why you’d want cheese anyway,” Tikki said, biting into a cookie.

“Cheese is _way_ better than cookies –” Plagg immediately began.

“Those two are one of a kind,” Marinette observed.

“A rare pair,” Adrien said, mouth quirking into a smile, and she rolled her eyes at him. That just made him grin. She sighed loudly and handed him a fork, then took the wrap off the cake.

After a couple of minutes, Marinette set her fork down and looked at the boy sitting beside him. Adrien’s eyes had lit up when he put the first forkful of cake into his mouth. He radiated such genuine pleasure that it made her heart melt – but that was dangerous. Maybe. She didn’t know that for sure, but she thought she knew how the two of them would be able to find out.

“Hey Adrien,” she said.

“Yeah?” He glanced up at her.

“Do you remember what I told you about Chat Blanc?”

The question gave him pause, and he slowly lowered his fork. “Yes…”

Marinette had known that he would. She hadn’t told him everything, of course, sticking to a highly edited version that basically suggested Bunnix had shown up out of the blue and asked for help while giving Ladybug no explanation for what had happened. So he didn’t know that the whole situation had apparently started with Adrien Agreste finding out Ladybug’s identity. 

“I didn’t tell you this, but I went into your bedroom to leave you a gift as Ladybug,” Marinette confessed. “And in that other timeline, you saw me leave.”

“Okay,” Adrien said slowly.

“The gift was addressed as though it was from me,” Marinette said. “So… you figured it out.”

Adrien’s eyes widened. “I did?”

She nodded. “And then… well, I assumed that you told someone.” She couldn’t look him in the face as she said it, instead staring out at the city. “Hawkmoth knew, and so did Chat Noir… so it made sense to me. But now I know that you’re Chat Noir, and you _never_ tell someone who I am, so I don’t know what happened.”

“I don’t blame you for making that assumption,” Adrien said kindly. “I probably would’ve jumped to the same conclusion. I can’t believe finding out who you are would ever akumatize me, though.”

“Like I said, Bunnix didn’t really explain. I got the feeling some time had passed between when Chat found out and he got akumatized, but…” Marinette spread her hands in frustration. “I was so panicked that he knew and kept saying my name, and Bunnix wouldn’t tell me anything anyway even when I asked. But…”

“But?” Adrien said.

“I don’t think you… Chat got akumatized because of my identity. I think he was akumatized because we were together.” 

Adrien was quiet for a few seconds. Then he said, “You mean _together_ together.”

“Exactly,” Marinette whispered. “So… I don’t know if we were spending time together as friends or if you were asking me out on dates, but… you always you loved Ladybug, and I can’t bear to see you akumatized again – ” Her voice was breaking.

“Whoa, hey.” Adrien set the plate aside, along with the forks, and scooted closer so he could pull her into a hug. Their positioning made the hug a bit awkward, but Marinette went with it. She wrapped her arms around him and clung for dear life. 

“Seeing you akumatized was one of the worst moments of my life,” she said shakily. “I have nightmares where I couldn’t save you. I can’t go through that again. I _can’t_.” Losing Chat forever was the worst thing she could think of. 

“You won’t,” Adrien said, gently but firmly. “Whatever happened, whatever will happen, we can deal with it.”

“But we didn’t last time,” Marinette pointed out. “It was too much for us.”

“This time, we have a warning. I know it’s a possibility. I’ll be ready,” Adrien said determinedly, and while his feelings were admirable –

“We still don’t know what happened, though!” Marinette looked up at him. “Maybe a warning isn’t enough.”

Adrien frowned. “It is for me. You saved me last time, Bugaboo. If I did get akumatized, I know that you would do it again.”

His trust was both inspiring and a little frightening, and he wasn’t wrong: she would do whatever it took to save him if that happened. But the point was that she didn’t _want_ it to happen, and so she said, “I just don’t think that’s enough.”

“Then… what are you saying?” He looked both sad and worried, like whatever she was going to say would break his heart more thoroughly than anything else ever had or ever would. And in any other situation, that was exactly what Marinette would have been torn up about. Ending things now, whatever this thing was, would’ve increased their chances of akumatization now, but possibly saved Adrien in the future. It was an impossible choice. 

Luckily, she had an ace up her sleeve.

“I’m saying that we need to know _exactly_ what happened,” Marinette said.

“I don’t disagree, but how can we do that?” Adrien said, his eyebrows furrowing. “You said it yourself, Bunnix didn’t want to give you too many details. Even if we had a way of contacting her, I don’t think she would be willing to tell us anymore.”

Marinette smiled at him. “You’re right about that, but we don’t need her. We can use the Rabbit miraculous and find out for ourselves.”


	19. Past Lives

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Time travel and such within the Miraculous verse doesn’t make a lot of sense, and it doesn’t help that we don’t know much about the Rabbit miraculous. It’s all guessing and conjecture. Therefore, I ask that we all suspend our disbelief here for the purposes of fandom and fic and that you not comment on the time travel aspects of this. Thank you!

“I knew that was coming!”

“You think we could do that?”

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?”

Plagg, Adrien and Tikki all spoke at the same time. Marinette blinked at the outburst and glanced around at the three of them to assess their reactions: Adrien looked intrigued, Plagg was amused, and Tikki concerned. Pretty much as she had expected. Still leaning into Adrien, she took his hand and squeezed it to reassure him. But when she spoke, she addressed Tikki.

“I know it might have unintentional ramifications, Tikki. But I really do think it’s the best way. Adrien and I need to know what happened so that we can make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

“Playing around with time travel can be dangerous,” Tikki countered. “It rarely ends well.”

“Technically, that timeline never happened. So we’re not playing around with time travel,” Marinette replied. “Besides, even if we were, we don’t want to change anything. We just want to look and I don’t see how that could do any harm.”

“Just by looking, you could inadvertently cause that timeline to happen,” said Tikki. “Because you don’t know _why_ it happened in the first place.”

“If we know, then our chances are avoiding it are better,” Marinette said stubbornly.

“Wait, if that timeline never actually happened because you changed things, can we even see it?” Adrien asked, and both Marinette and Tikki looked at him in surprise. Marinette opened her mouth to respond, then closed it, realizing that hadn’t factored into her plan and that she didn’t really know. 

“Possibly,” Plagg said thoughtfully, pretending he didn’t see the way Tikki glowered at him. “The Rabbit miraculous has powers that can be… difficult to understand, never mind use. It’s one of those miraculous that are limited only by its holder, and that why the guardian usually tries to pick someone a little different.”

“Like Alix,” Marinette murmured. She had always assumed that Master Fu had given Alix the miraculous, but perhaps that wasn’t the case. Maybe it had come from Ladybug, or even Chat Noir, because they would have known Alix the best.

“Exactly. Time doesn’t flow in only one direction; it exists all around us, branching out into dozens of potential and differing streams, which is difficult for some people to grasp,” Plagg explained. “There is no one future, but dozens of potential futures based on the choices you make now. Fluff always does her best to guide holders, but if you don’t have someone who is predisposed to an open mind, it can be impossible to harness.”

“No wonder Alix is a good fit,” Adrien murmured. “So what does that mean for Marinette’s plan?”

Plagg hummed thoughtfully, tiny tail lashing the air, before he answered. “If your actions truly erased that future and caused it to be an impossibility as things are now, then you probably won’t be able to see it. However, if that future could still happen then it’s likely you will be able to see it, especially since you know enough about that particular future to be able to find it.”

“Plagg, stop encouraging them!” Tikki hissed.

“They’re going to do it anyway, Sugarcube, and they’re the guardians so you can’t stop them,” Plagg pointed out, and Marinette smiled happily and reached out to rub his head. She liked that he had referred to both of them as guardians.

“I know, but –” Tikki puffed her cheeks out. “It’s so dangerous!”

“It’ll be okay, Tikki. Marinette and I have been miraculous holders long enough to have a good understanding of what we should and shouldn’t do,” Adrien said soothingly. “In this case, we both understand the risks and I think we both agree that we’d rather take the risks that come with finding out over the risk of not knowing.”

Tikki looked between them for a moment before sighing. “Fine. But I’d rather you didn’t do it tonight. Something like this is best done after you’ve both had a full night’s sleep, and once you’ve both had a chance to adapt to knowing who the other is.”

“We can wait until tomorrow night,” Adrien proposed. “We were supposed to have patrol anyway.”

“Fine,” Marinette said after a moment. She didn’t like the idea of waiting, but she knew she would rather do this with Tikki’s approval than not. Waiting a day wasn’t a huge sacrifice, even if she was incredibly curious. 

“I guess that’s my cue to head home,” Adrien said, though he made no move to go. Instead, he reached over and picked up the plate of cake. Marinette tried not to laugh and shook her head when he offered her some; she could go get another piece of cake whenever she wanted, but she knew such treats were rare for Adrien.

“Hey Adrien?” Marinette said after a few minutes of silence.

“Hmm?”

“Chat Noir always said he was in love with Ladybug, but you asked me out as Marinette,” Marinette said. “Why?”

Adrien put the last bite of cake in his mouth, chewed, and swallowed before he said, “If it’s okay with you, I’d rather wait and answer that question after tomorrow night.”

“Oh… sure,” Marinette said, wondering what his reasoning was. Perhaps he just wasn’t ready to address the elephant in the room, and she couldn’t fault him for that. The two of them had been dancing around each other for months. It might have been unrealistic to think that much tension could be solved in just one a few hours, particularly when it was possible that the two of them dating may have ended up getting Chat akumatized somhow.

What would happen if they couldn’t be together? Or worse, if the reason Chat had been akumatized was because the two of them were incompatible romantically? The thought made her stomach hurt. She had loved Adrien for so long, and she could now admit to herself that she had been falling in love with Chat – if she wasn’t already all the way there, and she knew what Tikki would say to that. Finding out they were one person, and that she didn’t have choose, should have been a blessing. But what if it wasn’t?

Adrien set the plate aside again and stood. “Plagg, claws out!” he called, punching the air. Green light swirled around him, transforming him into Chat. Seeing her sweet kitty, was more painful than Marinette had anticipated, and she stood and embraced him before she could stop herself.

“Be safe tonight,” she whispered, wishing she had the nerve to tell him that she loved him. Yet she didn’t think that was appropriate. Not right now, anyway.

But she thought maybe he heard the words she wasn’t saying, because he hugged her back and kissed the top of her head. “It’ll be okay, Princess. Don’t worry.”

Marinette smiled even as her face grew warm. Knowing that all those nicknames were coming from _Adrien_ was sending her for a loop. It was probably a good thing their identities hadn’t been revealed seven or eight months ago, when her crush on Adrien was at an all-time, frenzied high. She probably would’ve had a heart attack just thinking about it!

“I never worry,” she said, just to make him laugh, and it worked because he was still laughing when he went over the balcony and started vaulting towards the Agreste mansion. She leaned against the railing to watch him go.

“Are you okay?” Tikki asked, landing on Marinette’s shoulder.

“I think so. It was a shock, but a good one,” Marinette said. It was funny. Thinking about how much she used to freak out over Adrien was like a past life, or something that had happened to someone else. She had only known Tikki for approximately eighteen months, but she and Chat had changed so much. They’d grown a lot.

“And you’re absolutely sure you want to use the Rabbit miraculous that way?” Tikki said.

“Yup. I just feel like it’s the right thing to do.”

“Of course you do.” Tikki sighed and smiled. “Well, at least now I don’t have to worry about you or Chat accidentally figuring out each other’s identities through doing this!”

“Ha! Wouldn’t that have been a nightmare,” Marinette said, shaking her head.

“Marinette! Are you up there?”

Tikki squeaked and dove down Marinette’s top as Marinette spun around. “Maman?”

Sabine poked her head up through the window. “Are you busy?”

“Umm… not really,” Marinette said. “Why?”

“I thought I heard you talking to someone,” Sabine said, looking at her curiously.

“Just Alya. She had a question about the homework,” Marinette lied. 

“Oh, okay. Well, if you’re not doing anything, would you mind coming down to help your papa? He got a last minute catering order for tomorrow morning. It would be a huge help if you could spare a few minutes.”

“Sure.” Marinette pushed herself off the railing and walked towards the window, quickly swiping her cell phone off the table as she went – and thank goodness her maman hadn’t noticed it sitting there – and walked over to the window. She glanced over her shoulder just before she climbed inside, searching the skyline even though she knew that Chat wouldn’t be there. He was probably almost home; the trip between their houses wasn’t far. 

They were so lucky he’d left when he had. She wasn’t sure how her parents would react to finding Chat Noir on her balcony – or even worse, Adrien Agreste. But it probably wouldn’t have gone over very well.

“Marinette, are you coming?” Sabine called.

“Right behind you, Maman!”


	20. Gown

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some of this chapter is taken directly from Chat Blanc; I'm sure you'll recognize which parts aren't mine. Thank you to the Miraculous Wiki, which provided the transcript to Chat Blanc so I didn't have to re-watch the episode fifteen times to get the words down. I'm not sure my heart could've taken that!

Ladybug was unaccountably nervous as she approached the place where she and Chat usually met for patrol. It had been a rougher day at school than she expected, trying to act normal around Adrien, Alya and Nino. She was worried that if she and Adrien acted too friendly, Alya and Nino would notice that something was weird. Because having another conversation with Alya about whether or not Marinette was dating anyone would be beyond awkward since technically Marinette knew for a fact that there wasn’t two boys after all.

There was just _one_ boy, but she wasn't ready for Alya to know that.

Luckily, she’d been able to distract Alya with a rough design of a new gown. It had been _very_ rough, almost embarrassing by Marinette’s unusual standards, but she’d needed to warm herself up before working on Jagged’s commission. Besides, Alya had been so excited to see Marinette designing again that Marinette hadn’t cared. She hadn’t realized until that moment how much her best friend had been worrying about her over the past few weeks. Hopefully, Alya’s worries would shortly be over.

Ladybug landed on the roof at the same time as Chat did, and for a moment the two of them just looked at each other. Then Ladybug tried to smile and said, "You ready?"

"For something like this? I'm honestly not sure," Chat admitted. "But at the same time, I still feel the way I did last night. This is the best option that we have."

"Me too," Ladybug said. "So... do you wanna do it?" She offered the Rabbit miraculous to him.

"I will if you want me to, but I think it's best if you do," he said. “I know you’ve told me about it, but you have way more familiarity with the Rabbit miraculous than I do.”

"I thought you'd say that. Tikki! Floof! Unify!" Ladybug called out. A dizzying sensation enveloped her, but it only lasted for a split second. When it faded away, she looked down automatically. Her suit had gained a white midsection with blue trim and white boots. Something soft and fluffy fell past her eyes; she jumped and belatedly realized -

"Oh my god, you have bunny ears," Chat said, sounding totally enthralled. "My Lady, you are the cutest thing ever!'

"Shut up," Bunnybug said, blushing a little. "Burrow!" She threw her hands out, as she had seen Bunnix do, and felt a shiver run through her. A glowing white portal opened up in front of them. They both peered at it uncertainly for a moment. Somehow, it seemed way more intimidating when Bunnix wasn’t there shoving an unwitting Ladybug inside…

Finally, Chat cleared his throat. "Okay, so do we only get five minutes at this? Because if so, we're going to have to be quick unless we want to keep doing this over and over.”

Bunnybug hadn't thought of that. She grabbed his wrist and dragged him into the Burrow; they had no time to waste if that was the case. Inside the relative safety of the Burrow, they both looked around. Dozens of portals floated by them. Chat’s eyes were the size of saucers. Bunnybug knew exactly how he felt. The Burrow was truly something that had to be seen to be believed. Unfortunately, they didn't have a lot of time to admire the place. She closed her eyes and thought very hard about what had led to Chat Noir being akumatized.

"Hey. Hey, look." Chat gripped her arm and shook her lightly. Bunnybug opened her eyes and followed his gaze. A glowing circle had formed in front of them: the picture was a little fuzzy, but still legible. She blinked when she recognized herself, her parents, and Nathalie, who was holding a tablet –

\---

 _(Nathalie is holding a tablet in her hand.)_  
**Gabriel:** [from tablet] Miss Dupain-Cheng, your relationship with my son is detrimental to the Gabriel Agreste brand. I demand that you stop seeing him at once.  
**Marinette:** But... I didn’t do anything.  
**Tom:** She loves Adrien and Adrien loves her! You can’t stop them –  
**Gabriel:** [from tablet] If you refuse, I will not hesitate to withdraw Adrien from school, and he will never see his friends again.  
**Marinette:** _(drops tray of heart macarons)_ Adrien doesn’t deserve this!  
**Gabriel:** [from tablet] Then make the right choice.

\---

"That fucking asshole!" Chat exploded before the scene was even finished; Bunnybug stared dazedly at the scene and could see her papa's lips moving, but whatever he was saying went unheard because Chat was ranting so loudly. He was having his hands in the air so fiercely that he accidentally struck the gowing circe, and it dissolved.

"Chat," Bunnybug said, feeling sick, but Chat wasn't listening. She tensed as another glowing circle forrmed, this time showing herself – well, Marinette – sitting at the top of a stairway leading down to a train station. Bunnybug’s alternate civilian self was huddled beneath Adrien’s umbrella, and she was clearly crying. 

"I can't believe he made you break up with me! Is that why I got akumatized?! Because of all the disgusting things he's ever pulled -"

"Chat!" Bunnybug barked, and he swung around to blink at her. "I'm sure that can't be it. There has to be more. We only have four minutes left. We have to keep watching, okay?" Her heart was thudding against her ribs as she gestured to the new glowing circle. She could now see Adrien and the Gorilla; her heart twisted to see that Adrien was also crying –

\---

 **Adrien:** I beg you, please!  
_(His bodyguard nods.)_  
**Adrien:** _(runs to Marinette and sees an akuma flying towards her)_ Marinette, move!  
**Marinette:** Adrien? _(turns around)_  
**Adrien:** Plagg, claws out! _(transforms)_ Cataclysm! _(cataclysms the akuma)_  
**Marinette:** Adrien!  
**Chat Noir:** You were about to be akumatized. I didn't have a choice, My Lady.  
**Marinette:** My Lady? But how did you know? I thought our identities were supposed to remain a secret! _(drops umbrella and hugs Adrien)_  
**Chat Noir:** Everything will be okay, I promise.

 **Hawkmoth:** [from phone] Nathalie? Nathalie!  
**Nathalie:** [on phone] It's Adrien. Your son... he's... he's Chat Noir.

\---

At first, Bunnybug had been relieved and even a little excited to see Adrien transform and save her alternate self from an akuma. Finally, the mystery of how she had found out about Chat Noir’s identity in the alternate timeline was solved! Of course it had happened because he was trying to save her.

And she was also thinking to herself that maybe this even explained how someone else had found out. Because Adrien had transformed right out in the open, and if people knew that Ladybug and Chat Noir were dating, and people knew that Adrien and Marinette were dating, _and_ someone knew Adrien was Chat Noir, then it wasn’t a stretch to think Marinette was Ladybug.

She was happy. This completely absolved her kitty.

And then they saw the last little bit of it, and Bunnybug’s heart sank straight through the floor. She stared at the glowing circle as it faded briefly to white, unable to believe what they’d just seen. Chat was standing beside her, stiff and white. All of his rage was gone, replaced by numb shock.

“Nathalie – Nathalie is –” He didn’t seem to be able to finish his sentence. 

Bunnybug pressed her hands over her mouth. "I don't - that's – I – ”

"She's working with Hawkmoth," Chat whispered. " _How_?!!'

He would shortly regret asking; the glowing white circle shimmered and a new scene formed.

\---

 _(Hawkmoth falls in through the ceiling and Ladybug and Cat Noir jump down.)_  
**Ladybug:** You're done, Hawkmoth! Give us back your miraculous!  
**Chat Noir:** _(throws Hawkmoth's cane in the water)_ You know what they say. The wave of a moth's wing can set off a Cataclysm!  
**Hawkmoth:** I would put that Cataclysm away if I were you, Adrien.  
**Chat Noir:** How do you – _(the lid of Émilie's coffin opens and he sees Émilie)_ Mother?  
**Hawkmoth:** I'm doing it for her, Adrien. For you. For us.  
**Chat Noir:** Father? _(Ladybug looks at him in shock)_ Why? Why? Why? _(angrily runs up to Hawkmoth)_ Why?  
_(Hawkmoth smiles evilly, gets his cane back, and hits Chat Noir across the city and to the Eiffel Tower.)_

\---

"What?" Bunnybug gasped.

"Father?" Chat whispered.

"It can't be," Bunnybug said, shaking her head. Gabriel Agreste was Hawkmoth? It couldn't be!

And yet… she couldn’t help remembering how Master Fu had once suspected Gabriel Agreste, to the point where he and Marinette had spoken about it at length. They had only dismissed Gabriel as a viable suspect after Gabriel was akumatized. She had never thought to ask Master Fu is Hawkmoth was capable of akumatizing himself. Now, Bunnybug realized with a flush of horror that it must have been very possible indeed.

Plus, who else would Nathalie Sancoeur work with? The thought of Nathalie made Bunnybug swallow a gasp as she realized that Nathalie had to be Mayura. The only two people in Adrien’s life who were supposed to care about them and they – they had –

She looked over at Chat, who was so pale now that, if it weren’t for the darkness of suit, he would have borne an eerie resemblance similar to his akumatized self. His ears were flat against his head in distress, his eyes wide and glassy. Bunnybug knew she should say something, _anything_ , but her mind was blank. She couldn’t think of any words.

Then Chat shook his head and began to back up. His voice cracked when he said, “I don’t want to see anymore. Ladybug, get us out of here!”

"I - right," Bunnybug stuttered. "I -"

\---

 **Hawkmoth:** We can save your mother using your miraculous and hers!  
**Chat Noir:** No, just stop!  
**Ladybug:** Don't listen to him! You know there'd be a terrible price to pay in exchange!  
**Hawkmoth:** If she really loved you, she'd let you save your mother! _(points accusingly at Ladybug)_  
**Chat Noir:** Stop it, stop it, STOP IT!!!  
**Hawkmoth:** _(releases an akuma and it enters Chat Noir's bell)_ Chat Blanc, I'm giving you the infinite power of destruction! Together you and I will seize Ladybug's Miraculous and awaken your mother! Obey!  
**Chat Noir:** _(tries to fight back but fails)_ I'm sorry, Ladybug! _(turns into Chat Blanc)_

\---

"Make it stop!" Chat cried, clamping his hands over his eyes. "I don't want to see anymore!"

\---

 **Hawkmoth:** Seize her miraculous, my son!  
_(Chat Blanc lifts his arm to Ladybug.)_  
**Ladybug:** No Adrien, you have to resist!  
_(Chat Blanc points his arm to Hawkmoth.)_  
**Hawkmoth:** How dare you! Not me, Adrien!

\---

"Chat..." Bunnybug whispered. She was completely captivated by the sheer struggle playing out before her. The sheer agony in Chat Blanc’s eyes was unbearably painful to watch. She couldn’t imagine what it would be like to see it happen right in front of her. It was too much. She wanted to turn away, wanted it to _stop_ , but she couldn’t move – 

\---

 **Chat Blanc:** I... I don't know what to do!!! _(makes the Cataclysm huge)_ My Lady...  
**Ladybug:** My prince...  
_(The Cataclysm destroys Ladybug, Hawkmoth, Paris, everyone in it, and splits the moon in half.)_

\---

"LADYBUG, GET US OUT!" Chat screamed, and Bunnybug snapped out of her stunned stupor.

"Tikki, Fluff, Divide!" she shouted. She couldn't remember how to get out of the Burrow, and so she panicked: ending the unification was the only thing she could think of. Blue light flashed around her and Fluff appeared in front of her. The world around them seemed to shudder and freeze. Then suddenly, the white floor dropped out from underneath them. Ladybug stumbled and fell to the roof, shaking from head to toe. Fluff hovered over her, looking down at Ladybug with a somber expression.

"Time is not to be played around with, Ladybug," Fluff said quietly. "There is a reason that my holder cautioned you against trying to see too much the last time she reached out to you."

"Your... holder?" Ladybug said, pushing herself up. "You don't have a holder right now." 

Fluff merely gave a sad smile. "You have learned a valuable lesson that all guardians learn eventually. Now you must deal with the consequences." She bowed and then vanished.

"Fluff, wait!" Ladybug cried, hoping that the kwami might be able to help somehow - but Fluff had gone, and did not come back. She hesitantly turned around to look for Chat. Her stomach sank when she saw that he was huddled in on himself, arms wrapped around his midsection, head bowed so that she couldn't see him. From the way he was shaking, he was either crying or enraged.

Ladybug got to her feet, nearly staggering under the weight of all that they had learned and seen. She took a step towards Chat, and that’s when Chat threw back his head and let out an agonized scream. It was far too remniscent of the sound he’d let out while unleashing the Cataclysm that destroyed the world, and Ladybug shuddered at the rawness of it. Tikki had been right. They shouldn’t have looked.

“Chat,” she whispered, and then jumped forward with a cry of alarm. An akuma was descending on Chat, heading for his bell. She whipped her yoyo out, capturing the akuma before it got to him.

Chat didn’t even notice, too lost in his grief and confusion as he screamed again. 

“Chat,” Ladybug said again, wanting to hug him, wanting to _comfort_ him, but she didn’t even get a step closer before another akuma appeared. And then another. Her blood ran cold and she leapt into action. She would be damned if Hawkmoth got his hands on her kitty tonight.


	21. Class President

Ladybug was crying. Hot tears ran down her cheeks and she was exhausted, but she couldn't stop. She darted around the rooftop, capturing akuma after akuma. Chat had collapsed into a sobbing heap behind her, and she couldn't even spare a moment to comfort him because there were so many akuma coming. Most of them were aiming for Chat, but she was pretty sure the depths of her own emotions had caused a few to head in her direction too. How much longer would she be able to hold them off before it all became too much?

And just what would happen then?

She let out a cry as she tripped and fell to her knees. She stayed there a moment, breathing heavily, before realizing that she couldn't do this. She needed help. _They_ needed help. As much as she wanted to believe that she and Chat could do this alone, that belief wasn't enough anymore. If Chat got akumatized, Ladybug didn’t think she could fight him. And if she got akumatized – or worse yet, if they both did -

Ladybug shuddered. Adrien needed her, but she couldn't be there for him while she was worrying about akumas. The first option she thought of was getting him out of Paris and out of Hawkmoth’s reach, but they’d need the Horse miraculous for that and Ladybug couldn’t leave him long enough to fetch it. She also couldn’t carry him along and use her yoyo to purify akuma at the same time.

The only other alternative was calling for help. More tears ran down her face as she opened her yoyo and typed out a quick message, sending it to the one other person that she knew would _always_ come when Ladybug needed her. 

Then, looking up as fluttering echoed overhead, she forced herself to her feet and threw her yoyo out again. Hawkmoth was in full form tonight; by her count, Ladybug caught and purified nearly a hundred butterflies before there was another break. Knowing that Alya would be arriving soon, she staggered over to Chat and knelt down in front of him. His face was a mess of tears and snot, swollen and anguished, and her heart couldn't bear it. She cupped his cheek and spoke to him in a trembling voice.

"I need you to detransform for me. Can you do that?"

It was hard to tell whether Chat even heard her, or whether Plagg was the one who responded, but either way a green glow washed over Chat and then it was Adrien left behind, sobbing piteously on a cold roof. Plagg hovered protectively over his holder with an expression that was equal parts regret and pity. He slowly looked up at Ladybug.

"What are you planning?" he asked.

"I'm making the choice to give my own identity away," Ladybug said raggedly. "But Adrien doesn't have to. Alya doesn't have to know about him too." 

Plagg's eyes widened in surprise, but, before he could respond, Ladybug gasped. She caught the akuma that was literal inches from landing on Adrien's pajama shirt, then purified it. Both of them watched on in silence as the now white butterfly rose above them, flying silently into Paris's night sky like so many before it. A hard knot formed in Ladybug's chest, taking her breath away - she had half-hoped that maybe Adrien would be safe from akumas, that maybe Hawkmoth would realize and so maybe they would stop coming once he was no longer Chat Noir, but -

"Ladybug?" The door to the roof crashed open behind them and Alya burst out, Nino hot on her heels. Ladybug blinked at them dazedly and belatedly remembered that Alya had talked a little bit about a date with Nino earlier that day. Marinette had barely listened to the details, too busy thinking about was in the store for herself that night. How foolish she'd been...

"Adrien!" Nino exclaimed, sounding horrified. He sprinted over to Adrien and fell to his knees. "Ladybug, what happened?"

"He - I -" The sob that escaped her caught Ladybug by surprise. And she pressed a hand to her mouth to hold it all in. She wanted to fall into Alya's arms and let loose with all of the emotion building up inside of her, but she knew she couldn't. Adrien needed her to be strong.

"My father." Those were the first words Adrien had spoken since they left the Burrow. His voice was raspy. "He's Hawkmoth."

"What?" Alya breathed, her expression changing to one of horror.

"What the fuck," Nino said, sounding absolutely furious.

Adrien said nothing else, but he did something that made Ladybug freeze. He slid his ring off his finger and pressed it into Nino's hand. 

"Adrien?" Nino's voice had gone funny.

"Protect my lady," Adrien whispered.

"Ladybug!" Alya cried out fearfully at the same time.

Ladybug sobbed again as she reacted, catching the flurry of akumas and purifying them. When she turned around, Nino was staring at the ring in his hand with an expression of dawning understanding. Alya was looking from Nino to Adrien to Ladybug herself, obviously trying to make sense of it all. Ladybug walked over to her, struggling to catch her breath.

"I'm sorry," Ladybug said. "I need - just for a little while - you have to be Ladybug. Please."

Alya's eyes widened. "What?"

"Spots off," Ladybug whispered. She couldn’t bear to look as Tikki appeared, not wanting to see the disappointment in her kwami’s eyes. Nor could she stand to look at Alya or Nino as the truth came out. She didn’t want to know if they were hurt or betrayed by the secrets that had been kept.

Both Alya and Nino gasped. There was a weighty silence.

Then Marinette took the earrings off and held them out with shaking hands, staring at the ground. "Please, Alya. Watch over us for the next little while. Adrien needs to process this, and I can't help him while I'm trying to worry about akumas. Hawkmoth can feel what he's feeling, and he wants to - I _can't let that happen_ -"

"Okay," Alya said, her voice gone soft and soothing. "Okay, Mari, whatever you need. We're here." She took the earrings and, and Marinette looked up briefly to see that Alya was putting them in her ears. Tikki reappeared.

Trusting that Tikki would tell Alya and Nino both what they needed to know, Marinette finally allowed herself to do what she'd been wanting to do since they left the Burrow. She ran over to Adrien and fell to her knees before him, pulling him into a hug. 

"I'm sorry," she cried. "Adrien, my prince, I'm so sorry."

Adrien broke down in her arms, crying as though his whole world had ended - and in a way, Marinette knew, it had. Everything he thought he'd known had been shattered. His father was a monster who had been terrorizing Paris for almost two years. His mother was not dead, or at least she had not been buried, and everything Hawkmoth was doing was in her name. Nathalie was not only working with Hawkmoth, and had been for sometime now, but was Mayura. The sheer amount of lies that must have been fed to Adrien on a daily basis was mind-boggling, to say nothing of the lies surrounding his mother’s fate.

Behind them, there was a faint wave of power accompanied by a flash of red and green light. Moments later, a very familiar yoyo snapped out mere inches from Marinette's nose, capturing an akuma seconds before it would have made contact with one of Marinette's hair ribbons. Beyond that, Nino Noir was stalking around the edges of the building. Marinette squeezed her eyes shut so that she wouldn't have to see any of it, trusting Alyabug to keep them safe from the akumas that were still raining down from the sky.

Tikki had been right. The weight of that knowledge pressed heavily on her shoulders as she attempted to comfort her partner. They shouldn't have looked. They thought they’d understood the risks, but now she realized they had known _nothing_.

Adrien had the excuse of being unfamiliar with the Rabbit miraculous, but Marinette should have known better. The two times she had encountered Bunnix in the past, Bunnix had always cautioned her about the future. Hell, Bunnix had put a bowl on her head when Ladybug entered the Burrow to prevent Ladybug from seeing too much! Why hadn’t she stopped to consider those warnings more seriously? She was supposed to be smart: she was the class president! Yet she’d thought she’d known better…

And now they knew the awful truth. Gabriel was Hawkmoth and he had akumatized his own son. There was no doubt in her mind that Hawkmoth would do the same thing again if given the chance. How were they going to protect Adrien? How were they going to stop Hawkmoth? What were they supposed to do? They were just kids; they weren’t equipped to handle this!

She hugged Adrien tighter, bitterly wishing that she could throw a Lucky Charm into the air and set his whole world to rights. But this time, it would not be so easy. She pressed her face to his hair and cried.


	22. Akumatized

"Marinette?"

The softly spoken word was accompanied by a hand to Marinette's shoulder, which gave her a gentle shake. Marinette pried open her eyes and found herself looking up at a familiar red, black-spotted mask. It was very strange to see Alya dressed in the Ladybug suit as opposed to Rena Rouge's suit, but Marinette couldn't deny that being Ladybug suited Alya very well. She had a momentary realization that this was a brief view into a moment where Alya had kept the earrings and become Ladybug, and Marinette had remained on the sidelines.

Perhaps they all would've been better off if that had happened.

"It's been a little while since any akumas came," Alya said quietly. "I think Adrien passed out."

Marinette blinked at her and then wordlessly looked down, realizing that Alya was right. Adrien's eyes were shut and his breathing was slow. He had either cried himself into an exhausted sleep or, as Alya suggested out, simply passed out. And while Hawkmoth had akumatized people were asleep before, as evident with akumas like Sandboy, it was far more common for his targets to be awake... or maybe Hawkmoth was tired from sending akumas their way for most of the night with no success. Maybe, Marinette hoped, he had temporarily given up.

"The sun is up. We can't stay here," Nino Noir said, approaching from the left. Like Alyabug, he looked very striking in the black suit. Marinette's heart ached when she noticed that Nino Noir had no bell beneath his chin, just a smooth silver zipper. Had her kitty wanted to be a kept cat that badly?

Alyabug nodded. "Pretty soon, if not already, people are going to be entering those offices," she said with a nod to the buildings on either side. "I know we can't take Adrien home, and I know your parents are in out and of your place all day, but my apartment will be empty by now. My parents will have gone to work, Ella and Etta will be at school, and Nora just left for a vacation with her boyfriend. We can go there if that's okay."

It was as solid of a plan as anything, so Marinette nodded slowly. At some point during the long hours she'd held her partner, her anger had given away to a slow, burning ache that had pierced her core. Because she knew that, as easy as it was to blame herself - and of course, she wasn't foolish enough to think that she didn't deserve to shoulder some of the blame for this - neither she nor Adrien could've known that Gabriel was Hawkmoth. While she and Adrien had made mistakes, she couldn't ignore the fact that the majority of the blame for all of this lay with Hawkmoth.

"Great," Alyabug said with forced cheerfulness. "Nino is going to take Adrien, and I'll take you. I don't think any of us are fit to be in public right now." She reached down and carefully pried Adrien out of Marinette's arms. It actually took some effort on her part, as even in his sleep Adrien did not want to let go of his lady. But finally she managed, and she passed Adrien into Nino Noir's arms and then crouched down beside Marinette.

"What are we gonna do?" Marinette whispered. Fresh tears rose to her eyes as she looked at her best friend's face. Alyabug's eyes brightened with tears too as she laid an arm across Marinette's shoulders.

"I don't know yet, but we'll figure something out, okay?" she said. "Step one is getting us all out of here. C'mere." Alyabug stood, pulling Marinette up with her. The increased strength granted by the suit meant that Alyabug had no problem taking Marinette's weight, which was a good thing because Marinette's legs were shaky and weak. 

Travelling by yoyo and baton would've been the fastest way to get to the Césaire household, but neither Nino Noir nor Alyabug were experienced at using those weapons for travel. So they did it the old-fashioned way, leaping across rooftops. Marinette wrapped her arms around Alyabug's neck and closed her eyes, wishing that it was Chat's arms wrapped around her instead. She had never traveled this way with anyone other than him, and she had never been afraid while his strong, secure arms held her. In Chat's arms, the world made sense.

When they got to Alya's building, all four of them landed on the roof. Alyabug walked over to the door that gave access to the roof and did something to the knob so that it opened. She helped Marinette through, with Nino Noir and the still-unconscious Adrien bringing up the rear. They made their way down half a dozen stairs to the fifth floor, where the Césaire apartment was. Alyabug unlocked the door and poked her head inside to verify it was empty; deeming it safe, she pulled Marinette inside and sat Marinette on the couch before returning to the door to help Nino Noir bring Adrien in.

They laid Adrien down on the couch nad then Marinette knelt beside him, gently combing a few strands of hair away from his face. Adrien didn't even stir beneath her touch, which was a testament to just how far gone that he was. It was awful to see him this way, and even worse to know that things weren't going to improve in the near future. She hated Gabriel Agreste so much in that moment that it took her breath away.

"Whoops!" Alyabug exclaimed; the yoyo snapped out and caught an akuma just before it would've landed on Marinette's shoulder.

"Sorry," Marinette said, not really meaning it. She stroked Adrien's cheek and then turned to see their two friends exchanging a glance.

"No problem, but something tells me I should stay transformed for a little while longer," Alyabug said. "Marinette, why don't you go take a shower? You look like you could use one."

At any other time, Marinette would've light-heartedly asked if that was Alyabug's way of saying that she stunk. But right now, Marinette didn't have it in her to joke around. She just nodded and slowly stood, casting a worried glance at Adrien.

"It's okay. I'll watch over him," Nino Noir said. As strange as it was to see the Ladybug mask on Alya's face, it was even weirder to see Chat Noir's black mask on Nino's face. For the first time, she realized that he was still wearing a hat. But it wasn't a baseball cap, more of a beanie with the two infamous black cat ears sticking up from it. That led her to believe that Nino Noir's ears were probably for more decoration, rather than useable as Chat's were.

"Thank you," Marinette said quietly to them both, turning on her heel and heading down the hall. She knew Alya's apartment well and ducked into the bathroom without having to ask where it was, shedding her clothes. She switched the water on and stepped into the tub. It was cold at first but heated quickly, filling the bathroom with steam.

There, in the privacy of the showers, Marinette's tears came again. She wrapped her arms around herself and cried quietly for Adrien, for herself, for her dear friends, for poor Émilie Agreste, for the future that had almost happened all over again - for the future that could still happen, if she and Alyabug weren't viligant enough to keep after the akumas. She cried until she had no tears left, until all of the emotion flooding through her had dialed back into low tide, and then she numbly washed her hair and body free of the sweat, tears and grime.

"Marinette? I'm putting some clothes here for you," Alyabug said. "Are you okay?"

"I'll be right out," Marinette said rather than lie. Truth be told, none of them were okay. How could they be? Just thinking about what would have to come next was enough to make her want to lay down on the tub and just let the water pour over her forever.

Instead, she shut the water off, pushed the curtain back, and paused when she saw Alyabug standing there. The two girls looked at each other for a moment, and then Alyabug entered the bathroom and kicked the door closed behind her. She picked up a big, fluffy pink towel and shook it out, then wrapped it around Marinette's shoulders. Marinette shivered as the soft fabric settled around her and Alyabug bit her lip, pulling the towel more snugly around Marinette. She stepped back so that Marinette could climb out of the tub and onto the thick bathmat.

"I'm sorry," Alyabug said softly, and Marinette glanced up at her in surprise. 

"What?" she asked.

"I can't imagine what you've been going through, Marinette. Ladybug is amazing and she does wonderful things, but even after I got to use the Fox miraculous, I never really understood what kind of impact being Ladybug had on the girl behind the mask. I didn't think about you." Alyabug's red, black-spotted hands tightened on Marinette's arms. "I didn't get it until I saw you and Adrien crying tonight, and I thought... my god, we're all just _kids_." There was equal parts wonder and disgust in Alyabug's voice.

"I know. It's... it's a lot," Marinette whispered, which was the understatement of the year.

"You're damned right it's a lot. I'm sorry that you went through this alone, and I'm sorry Adrien had to too. I'm sorry that I wasn't there for you, and that I probably made life worse trying to figure out who Ladybug was. You must hate me," Alyabug said.

Marinette shook her head. "Not at all. You came when I needed you. That means everything to me."

"Of course it does," Alyabug said softly. "Nino and I, we're going to be here for you guys until the end, okay?"

"Okay," Marinette said, swallowing hard, and finally got her hug from her best friend. It was the best hug she'd had in ages.


	23. Buff!Marinette

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Umm yeah one of the hardest prompts ever, sheesh.

When Marinette began to shiver from the chill, Alyabug quickly pulled back and said, "You need to get dressed. Last thing we need is you getting sick. Here, I brought you my second favorite pair of pajamas." She pressed some black fabric into Marinette's hands. When Marinette shook out the pants and top, she was startled into a laugh.

"These are your second favorites?" she asked, examining the black material. The pants had bright green paw prints all over them; the top had a picture of a white cat and the words _Feline like going back to bed_ written across the chest in the same bright green.

"Of course. My favorites are red with black spots," Alyabug said simply.

Marinette blinked rapidly and tried to smile. "I guess they don't really make much Carapace and Rena Rouge merchandise yet."

"Well no, but that wouldn't change anything." Alyabug leaned against the counter, politely looking away as Marinette dropped the towel. Marinette pulled on the pants and the top, sighing when she felt how soft the material was. Even though it was early morning, and she really should have been getting dressed in actual clothes, the pajamas were exactly what she needed right now.

"Thanks, Alya," she said, reaching up to pull her hair off her neck.

"No problem," Alyabug said, looking back. Then she whislted. "Damn. You're buff, Marinette! How did I never notice that?" She reached out to touch Marinette's bicep, feeling the muscle there.

"Um, I guess I don't usually wear short-sleeved shirts anymore?" Marinette said, dropping her hands, but she knew what Alya meant. The suit did most of the work, but it was still Marinette's body underneath it. The constant exercise had gone a long way towards toning her body. She would never look like a bodybuilder, but she definitely had the appearance of someone who went to the gym on a very regular basis. If anyone had ever noticed, Marinette had always planned to excuse it with a lie about helping out in the bakery and lifting up heavy bags of flour. She supposed that excuse wouldn't fly now.

"You should start. If Adrien knew you had guns like this, he would've been all over you ages ago," Alyabug said, a twinkle in her eye.

"Yeah, sure," Marinette said dryly. She was even less sure about where she and Adrien stood now. To some extent, their relationship had been the reason for Chat getting akumatized in the alternate timeline. Would Adrien even want to be with her now? Had he ever? He hadn't wanted to talk about it before; maybe he was just trying to figure out a way to let her down gently...

"I haven't seen a butterfly in a little bit. Think it's safe for me to detransform?" Alyabug asked.

"I think so. I feel..." Marinette paused, trying to consider how best to put her state of mind into words. Fragile wasn't really a word she wanted to use, even though it was the truth. In the end, she settled for a shrug.

"Okay. What do I say?"

"Spots off," Marinette said.

"Spots off," Alyabug repeated. There was a flash of red light and then it was Alya standing in front of her, back to normal. Marinette held her hands out for Tikki to land on them.

"Oh, Marinette," Tikki said, looking sorrowful. "I'm so sorry."

Marinette swallowed. "Not going to say 'I told you so'?"

Tikki shook her head. "Of course not. That's not what you or Adrien need to hear right now. You shouldn't have had to find out that way."

"You shouldn't have had to find out at all," Alya said, her eyes flashing. "I already had a pretty low opinion of Gabriel Agreste, but this whole thing is unbelievable. What a disgusting excuse for a human being!"

"I concur," Tikki said darkly.

"I just feel bad for Adrien," Marinette said softly.

Alya sighed and removed the earrings, handing them over to Marinette. "I feel the same way. Poor Adrien. This was the last thing he needed."

"I just don't know how he'll come back from this." Marinette slipped the earrings back into her ears, immediately feeling better once they were in and Tikki had reappeared. Her kwami settled onto Marinette's shoulder, a comforting weight, and Marinette gave Tikki a quick nuzzle. 

"I'm sure he will," Alya said with an encouraging smile. "Once we get Gabriel behind bars, Adrien can start to move on."

"What?" Marinette said, surprised.

"What?" Alya parroted back, blinking. "Marinette... just because he's Adrien's father doesn't change the fact that he's a supervillain. Gabriel broke the law. A lot. He _killed_ people. I know your miraculous cure saves everyone in the end, but that doesn't erase the fact that those things still happened and Gabriel was responsible. He deserves to go to jail for what he did."

Marinette just stood there, speechless. Because Alya was right, wasn't she? There was no way that the people of Paris would quietly allow Hawkmoth's crimes to go unpunished. The miraculous cure fixed all of the physical damages, but it couldn't do anything for emotional damages. A lot of people had been traumatized by akumas, to say nothing of what the actual akuma victims themselves had been through. Alya had been unusually quiet and subdued for about a month straight after she was akumatized into Lady WiFi. Working on the Ladyblog had helped Alya a lot, but not everyone was lucky enough to have a creative outlet like that.

"I know you love Adrien," Alya said, gentling her tone. "I respect that. But you also have to think about the fact that you'd be doing this _for_ Adrien, too. He deserves better than to have to live with some asshole who regularly tries to kill him."

"Gabriel doesn't know Adrien is Chat Noir," Marinette was compelled to point out. 

Alya scoffed. "Yeah, but Adrien has gotten caught in at least a dozen akuma attacks. Remember that time Adrien's bodyguard got akumatized? Adrien jumped off a frigging building to get away! He could have died!"

"Yeah, of course I remember," Marinette said softly. Alya was right. She knew that Alya was right. She just hoped that Adrien would see it that way too. 

"It'll be okay," Alya said. "Come on. We'll talk about together." She grabbed Marinette's hand and opened the door, pulling Marinette out into the hallway. They walked back out into the living room where Marinette saw, much to her relief, that Adrien was now awake. He looked up at her, and she looked down at him, and for a long moment, no one said anything.

Then Adrien whispered, "Marinette, I - I'm so sorry. I should've -"

"Don't," Marinette said, holding a hand up, because she suddenly knew exactly where Adrien was going with this. The guilt he was feeling was written all over his face as clearly as though he had stood up and shouted it from the rooftops. They had worked together for long enough that she knew immediately what he was thinking, and it hurt to know those things were running through his head. This wasn't Adrien's fault. He hadn't asked his father to become Hawkmoth.

"But -"

"I said _don't_ ," Marinette said, more forcefully this time. "Adrien, you didn't know. You couldn't have known. I'm sure that he did everything he could to hide it from you. I don't blame you. No one does." She stared him down, looking deep into his eyes, willing him to believe what she was saying. 

"See?" Nino said. He was sitting on the couch beside Adrien, and now he gently elbowed Adrien in the ribs. "I _told_ you, dude. Your lady still loves you." He winked at Marinette, who flushed.

"Of course I do," Marinette whispered, and Adrien's head snapped back to her. She walked over to him and cupped his cheek, thumb tracing the place where his mask usually lay. Adrien closed his eyes when she touched him, leaning into her touch in a way that hurt even more. Now they knew why Gabriel had ignored and outright neglected his son for so long. He was trying to save Émilie. Either Gabriel thought that saving her would be enough to make Adrien forgive him, or he planned to overwrite everything so that all of the neglect was erased. Marinette would have bet good money that it was the latter.

"Alya, seriously?" Nino said, right before Marinette heard a faint but familiar click.

"Sorry," Alya said sheepishly, lowering her phone. "It's just that my OTPs are happening right - oh my god!" Her eyes widened suddenly. "That other boy -"

"Not the time!" Marinette blurted out, glaring at her friend. "Seriously."

"Right. Sorry," Alya said again, but she was clutching her phone to her chest with poorly repressed glee. It was obviously she'd figured out that the 'other boy' Marinette had been so hesitant to talk about was Chat Noir. 

Adrien cocked his head, clearly confused, but shook the moment off. "What are we going to do?" he asked Marinette.

"I don't know yet," Marinette said honestly. 

"I vote for tossing your dad into a deep, dark hole and sealing it up," Nino said.

Alya pointed at Nino. "I'm with him."

"Me too," Plagg said; he'd been curled up in Adrien's hair in such a small ball that Marinette hadn't even realized he was there, but now he sat up.

"Guys," Marinette said, faintly exasperated. "That's illegal."

"Is it really illegal if you're a superhero?" Alya wondered. Marinette glared at her again.

"Need I remind you that you are talking about Adrien's father," she said tightly. She didn't say that Adrien had nearly been akumatized multiple times last night, and that he was still at risk for it now. Marinette was hyper aware of the room and any potential butterflies that might come calling, though she was hoping that Gabriel had stopped for the morning – ever supervillains had to show up for work.

"That's part of my motivation," Nino muttered.

"It's okay," Adrien said at the same time. "And they're right."

"Adrien?" Marinette said uncertainly.

Adrien met her gaze. He was calmer now, sad and determined as he said, "We need to take Hawkmoth down."


	24. Pressure

“Alya, could you and Nino go make some tea?” Marinette said, not looking away from Adrien. 

“Sure,” Nino said, jumping up. He had to pull Alya along with him into the kitchen, but finally they were gone.

Then Marinette sat down on the couch beside her partner and said, “Are you sure about this?”

“It doesn’t really matter what I think, does it?” Adrien said quietly. “He can’t keep doing what he’s doing.”

“We could just take the miraculous back. We don’t have to expose him,” Marinette pointed out. She would do that, and weather the consequences, for Adrien.

Adrien shook his head. “Thank you, Marinette, but no. Paris deserves to know who’s been behind that mask. I don’t even know if they’d take the word of Ladybug if you told them that Hawkmoth had been privately dealt with. I bet we’d have a lot of people pressuring us to get his name.”

“He’s right,” Tikki piped up. “The safest thing for you and Adrien is to expose Hawkmoth and send him to jail.”

“But…” Marinette blew her breath out in frustration, looking at Adrien worriedly. This night had been a huge shock for him and she was worried about making it worse. They would need to strike immediately if they were going to do this right. 

“I’m okay,” Adrien said, reaching for her hand. He laced their fingers together. “It’s going to take some time for me to come to terms with it all… and I don’t even know who my father is now…” His voice broke slightly. “But I’m just trying not to think about that right now. There’s time to figure it all out later… I – I don’t even know what’ll happen to me after he goes to jail. My mother had – has – a sister, but we’re not close…”

“You can stay with me or Nino,” Marinette said immediately, squeezing his hand, and Adrien gave her a watery smile.

“That would be nice,” he said.

“Don’t worry about that part of it, kid,” Plagg said. “If worst came to worst, you could always run away.”

“Plagg!” Tikki exclaimed, but Adrien let out a soft chuckle. Marinette smiled too, her apprehension eased slightly by the humor, however brief, in Adrien’s face. She knew then that he would be okay. It would take a long time, and it was probably going to be a bumpy road in the process, but eventually they’d all be okay. 

When Adrien wasn’t looking, she caught Plagg’s eyes and mouthed ‘thank you’.

Plagg winked back at her and added, “I’m just saying. That’s not the thing to get caught up in here. The more important thing to focus on is how you’re going to get the Butterfly and Peacock miraculouses away from Gabriel and Nathalie.”

“They probably keep their miraculouses on them all the time like you and Adrien do,” Tikki said.

Marinette frowned. “Logically, the easiest time to get to them would be when they’re sleeping,” she said slowly. 

“I could get us into the mansion,” Adrien said. “But the security system locks everything down after a certain hour. I think it’s 10pm, but I’m not even sure about that. I have to be really careful when I come and go so that I don’t set off any alarms.”

“Which isn’t great, because ideally we’d have the police with us so they could arrest Gabriel on the spot,” Marinette muttered, tapping her fingers on her thigh in thought.

“Mind if we chime in?” Nino said, walking back out of the kitchen. He had two cups of tea and two packages of cookies tucked under his arm. Alya followed with a couple bags of chips and more tea.

“Alya, do you have any cheese?” Adrien asked, looking at the cookies.

“Uh… I think so. My mom uses it a lot in her recipes. Any particular preference?” Alya asked.

“Camem – mmph!” Plagg’s shout was muffled by Adrien’s expertly placed hand.

“Whatever you have is great,” Adrien said, smiling at her.

“I’ll see what I can dig up,” Alya said, amused. She went back into the kitchen and returned a moment later carrying a chunk of Gouda cheese. Plagg’s eyes lit up and he descended greedily on the cheese; Alya quickly set it down on the coffee table and yanked her hands back.

Marinette took a package of cookies and opened them, handing one to Tikki. Then she said, “Do you guys have any ideas for how we can make this happen? I don’t want this turning into a huge fight if we can avoid it, and Hawkmoth and Mayura aren’t going to go down easily.”

“I think we shouldn’t give them the chance to make it a huge fight,” Nino replied. 

“But how can we do that?” Adrien said.

“That’s easy. You use your friends,” Alya said calmly, squeezing into the chair beside Nino. “Viperion can use Second Chance before we go. That way if something goes wrong, we can start over. Pegasus can portal directly into the Agreste mansion. Queen Bee can use her venom on Hawkmoth, because he’s the biggest threat; he can’t fight us if he’s paralyzed, and then it’s just a matter of plucking the miraculous right off of him. For Mayura, I can use my illusion to confuse her if she wakes up. Carapace and Ryuko can provide support, and King Monkey can be there just in case one of them manages to transform.” She smiled triumphantly, tipping her chin up. 

There was a long pause during which Marinette, Adrien and Nino just stared at her, and then Marinette said dazedly, “I think you know more about the miraculous than I do.”

Alya smirked back at her. “I haven’t been obsessing over the Ladyblog for like two years for nothing, Marinette. I am very careful to keep track of all the known miraculous powers and what they’re capable of.”

“Alya, you’re kind of scary sometimes,” Adrien said. “You weren’t even there for some of those battles!”

“I’m going to take that as a compliment,” Alya said, obviously choosing to ignore the implied question in what Adrien had said. 

“Alya’s right,” Nino said. “Having your allies there takes a lot of the pressure off you two. Plus you can hit Hawkmoth and Mayura at the same time, giving them no chance to alert each other.”

“Exactly. You also don’t have to worry about separating and going in alone,” Alya added. 

“But wait. Queen Bee?” Nino said, turning to Alya. “Shouldn’t we find someone else?”

An awkward silence descended upon the group while they all looked at each other. Adrien pinched his lips together, his frown speaking volumes. Marinette knew how he felt already. She and Chat had had a conversation about Chloé a few times now. At least now Chat’s opinion that Chloé had been manipulated by Hawkmoth and deserved another chance made way more sense.

The real question was whether or not Marinette could trust Chloé again. She had been very frustrated with Chloé’s childish behavior in the days following that attack, but time and several lengthy conversations with both Chat and Tikki had helped to give her new perspective. She could appreciate why Chloé had been so frustrated, and could even see the role that Ladybug had played in that – she should’ve chosen the Bee miraculous to help against Heart Hunter, not given in to her jealousy and gone for Kagami.

It didn’t excuse Chloé’s decision to partner up with Hawkmoth, of course, but Marinette also had to weigh in the fact that Hawkmoth was exceptionally skilled at manipulating people. Being the Butterfly holder meant that Hawkmoth was highly emphatic and understood exactly how to play on someone’s deepest fears or flaws. Chloé probably hadn’t even realized she was playing right into Hawkmoth’s hands.

Could Chloé grow? Marinette didn’t know. Chloé had been relatively quiet over the past few weeks, sticking mostly to Sabrina and not interacting much with anyone else. But it was hard to say whether that was because Chloé grasped that she’d done something wrong, or if it was because Audrey Bourgeois had remained in town and Chloé’s attention was being preoccupied by her mother. And if it was the latter, Audrey was a terrible influence…

But on the other hand, it wouldn’t be wise to take a brand new miraculous holder into a fight like that. They needed the help of someone who was familiar with the Bee miraculous and its powers. Ladybug or Chat could unify with the Bee, but it would be best to have someone separate wielding it. In this situation, she thought that the more people they had the better.

“Marinette?” Alya prompted finally. Marinette blinked, realizing that they were all looking at her expectantly and that she’d been sitting there in silence, just thinking, for a couple of minutes.

“I think I have to talk to Chloé first,” she said finally. She looked at Adrien. “I’m not saying no, but I’m also not saying yes.”

“She did side with Hawkmoth,” Nino said.

“I know, but…” Marinette sighed. “Chloé is a kid like us. We’ve all been manipulated by Hawkmoth. Even I almost got akumatized that time. If Chloé realizes that what she did wrong, then I’d be willing to give her another chance.”

Another small smile crossed Adrien’s face. “Thank you,” he whispered.

“Okay then,” Alya said, ripping open a bag of chips. “Then you should do that today so that we can do this tonight.”

“Tonight?!” Marinette exclaimed.

“Well, why not? Do either of you want to give Hawkmoth a chance to akumatize someone else?” Alya asked, sounding so reasonable about it all that Marinette couldn’t argue.

“I… I guess not,” Adrien said, looking a little bewildered.

“Great. Then Adrien, you go shower. Marinette, you figure out what you’re going to say to Chloé. If you’re up for it, go can go talk to her after school. Nino and I can work out the fine details of our plan,” Alya said. 

“Uh… sure,” Marinette said, realizing that while it was kind of weird to have someone else calling the shots, it was kind of nice too.


	25. Order of the Guardians

Miraculously, Marinette actually fell asleep for a little while following their conversation. She slept for about six hours, which wasn't nearly long enough considering she'd been up all night and was already somewhat sleep deprived, but it helped her to feel marginally more alert when she transformed and made her way to Le Grand Paris later that afternoon. 

Ladybug landed on Chloé's balcony, her stomach fluttering with nerves. Tempting though it was to run away, she steeled herself. She had avoided Chloé for long enough, and that was wrong of her. She knocked lightly on the door.

There was a short pause before the curtain was drawn back. Chloé's eyes bugged out when she saw Ladybug standing there, but where she once would've jerked the door open and greeted Ladybug with enthusiasm, Chloé was noticeably slower to open the door. She crossed her arms over her chest as she did, giving Ladybug a long look before her eyes flicked past to the horizon. It was obvious she was looking for any signs of an akuma. When she failed to find anything, she looked back at Ladybug with a raised, expectant eyebrow.

"We need to talk," said Ladybug. "Can I come in?"

"Sure," Chloé said, taking a step back. Ladybug followed her inside, gently shutting the door behind her. She was relieved to see that the room was otherwise empty, as she hadn't even thought about what she would do if Sabrina or Chloé's butler was there. 

An expectant silence fell, and Ladybug twisted her fingers together nervously. All the words she had planned to say melted away, leaving her speechless. Suddenly, she wished she had taken Adrien up on his offer to come along. She had told him it would be better if he stayed behind because she didn't think he was capable of being objective when it came to Chloé. That was the same reason she hadn't accepted Alya's offer to tag along. But this would've been a lot easier if Chat had been standing at her side.

"Well?" Chloé said finally. "I don't have all day." She lifted her hand to examine her nails, and it was then that Ladybug realized that Chloé's hands were trembling. Chloé was nervous. Maybe even more so than Ladybug herself. Somehow, that knowledge was enough to calm Ladybug down a little.

"I wanted to say that I'm sorry," Ladybug said, and Chloé looked up at her surprise.

"Sorry that you took my miraculous away? You should -"

"No," Ladybug said, holding up a hand. "I told you the truth that day. Hawkmoth knew who you were, Chloé. That means it wasn't safe for you to be a miraculous holder anymore. I didn't do it to be mean, or because I wanted to take it away." She was surprised to find that those words were true. "I did it because I was trying to protect you. The same thing happened when Hawkmoth found out who Ryuko was. She couldn't help us anymore either."

Chloé narrowed her eyes. "I don't believe you."

"That's your choice, but it's the truth. And I... I did see you that day, after your parents got akumatized. You were willing to help and I should have accepted your offer," Ladybug said, guilt pooling hot and sour in her stomach. She had allowed jealousy to get the better of her that day, opting instead to go for Kagami. Not because Kagami or Ryuko would've been the better choice, but because Kagami had been cuddling up to Adrien. 

"I knew you saw me," Chloé said, huffing. "Why didn't you choose me?!"'

"Why did you agree to work with Hawkmoth?" Ladybug countered, and Chloé froze. 

"I - that's - " Chloé stammered.

Ladybug crossed her arms, enjoying the chance to see Chloé so off guard. "I'm waiting. You sided with our enemy, Chloé. That's a huge breach of trust."

"I didn't _want_ to work with him," Chloé snapped. "I didn't have a choice. You were never going to give me my miraculous back."

"That's not -" Ladybug begun, but Chloé didn't give her the chance to finish.

"Shut up! You just told me that it wasn't safe. That means that you weren't going to give it back, right? Even though it was _my_ parents who got akumatized. I could have helped you save them." Chloé's lower lip trembled. "I _would_ have helped. Hawkmoth pointed out to me that you don't care. You're just like everyone else." She turned away, wrapping her arms around herself. "So yeah, I agreed to help him. He gave me my miraculous back! That's all I wanted."

Ladybug was quiet for a moment, sorting through all of that. Her guilt was intensifying, but she tried to ignore it and focus. "Chloé, what he said wasn't true. I care about you."

Chloé scoffed. "Oh yeah right. I've seen the way you look at me. You never listened to me, even when I was Queen Bee. I know the only reason I was a miraculous holder is because I found the Bee miraculous, not because you wanted me. _No one_ wants me." There was something hot and sharp about Chloé's face when she looked at Ladybug just then.

"Chat does," Ladybug said before she could stop herself. "And I do too. It's true that you're not my favorite person... we don't get along very well. But up until you agreed to work with Hawkmoth, you were a good teammate."

"We don't get along very well?" Chloé repeated, looking curious. "What, you mean in your civilian form?"

"Yeah," Ladybug said. That was dangerous, but she was too tired to care at the moment. "Chloé, look. Everyone made mistakes on that day. I want to trust you again, but I don't know how. How can I believe that you won't side with Hawkmoth again?"

"He has nothing I want," Chloé said stiffly, which was actually true since Hawkmoth no longer had possession of the Bee miraculous. It wasn't the most comforting statement, but it was honest and Ladybug could appreciate that for what it was. 

Looking at Chloé now, she realized that her earlier thoughts had definitely been true. Hawkmoth had found Chloé in a moment of a weakness and manipulated her by giving her what she wanted most when she was feeling ignored and unloved by everyone else. If Ladybug had been in that situation, could she really say she wouldn't have been tempted to do the same?

Maybe the key to Chloé Bourgeois wasn't the Bee miraculous at all, but friends. Or at least, a team that Chloé could rely on. People who would actually pay attention to _her_ , not ignore her or shove material items at her.

"Oh man, I can't believe this," Ladybug muttered.

"What?" Chloé said.

Ladybug sighed loudly. "Chloé Bourgeois, we know who Hawmoth is," she said, watching Chloé's eyes open wide in surprise. "If you want to help fight against him, then I need you to come to the front gates of College Francois Dupont tonight at 2am."

"Does that mean you'll give me my miraculous back?" Chloé asked eagerly.

"Maybe," Ladybug said. "That depends on what happens tonight." She would wait and see how Chloé behaved with the rest of the team when they gathered tonight. If she was being too much of a brat, then the answer would be no. If she was being half-decent, then Ladybug would concede to giving her another shot. 

"But I need to see Pollen," Chloé cried. And then she scowled, like she hadn't meant to say that, and half-turned away with an embarrassed flush.

"Why?" Ladybug asked curiously, the unusual request catching her attention. 

"No reason," Chloé said quickly.

"Chloé, if you're not honest with me, then there is absolutely no way you're getting your miraculous back for even a few minutes," Ladybug said firmly. "The miraculous are way too dangerous to be given out to anyone that I can't trust. Right now, I don't trust you. If you want to earn my trust, then you have to start by telling me the truth. Why do you need to see Pollen so badly?"

Chloé stared at her for a long moment, clearly weighing her options, before sighing. Stiffly, she said, "I want to apologize."

" _You_ want to apologize? Seriously?" Ladybug blurted out before she could stop herself.

"Not that it's any of your business, but yes. I said something rude the last time I saw her," said Chloé, and if Ladybug hadn't known better, she would've said that Chloé looked slightly ashamed.

It was Ladybug's turn to stare, this time in astonishment. She hadn't even known that Chloé was capable of apologizing. 

"It's not that big a deal," Chloé snapped, shame turning swiftly to embarrassment.

"Right, no, of course not," Ladybug said, snapping out of it, even though it totally was. The fact that Chloé was capable of and willing to apologize felt like a huge breakthrough. Because the Chloé Bourgeois that Ladybug knew would rather have turned herself inside out than apologize. Maybe Chloé had changed. Maybe the past six weeks had been hard on her too. Maybe they were all growing up; maybe they weren't kids anymore after all, no matter how unfair and wrong that wa.

She had a split second then where Ladybug felt like she could see the future even though she didn't have the Rabbit miraculous. In that future, she and Chat weren't the only guardians anymore: there was a new order of the guardians, with all of them a part of the secrets and where the mystery surrounding the miraculouses was gone. And maybe there was a place for Chloé in that future after all.

"Come tonight, okay?" Ladybug turned away before anything else could be said, opening the balcony doors. Chloé didn't come after her, so she threw out her yoyo and let it take her back towards Alya's house. She didn't need to look back to know that Chloé was watching her go, just like she didn't need to ask if Chloé would be there tonight.


	26. Comfort

"It's time," Plagg announced.

Marinette's heart turned over. "Is it really?"

"It's 1:45am," Plagg replied, glancing from her to her computer. Adrien turned around, looking pale. He'd been officially working on homework, but Marinette suspected that he had gotten as far on his homework as she had on her design for Jagged. Which was to say, they had made no progress at all.

After she'd talked to Chloé, she'd realized that going back to Alya's was pointless. Her parents and sisters would be home soon, which meant that Nino, Adrien and Marinette couldn't hang around for long without some uncomfortable questions being asked. So Marinette had gone home, figuring that it couldn't hurt for her parents to see her face for a bit. She’d pretended that she’d slipped out early that morning to meet Alya before school before rushing up to her room.

Because Adrien couldn't go home, of course - even if he'd wanted to, none of them would've felt comfortable with Adrien or the Black Cat miracuous being under the same roof as Hawkmoth. So Chat had been waiting for her on her balcony, and she'd slipped him into her room with her parents none the wiser. They had shared Marinette’s supper, and otherwise wiled away the time as best they could.

"Are you sure you're ready for this?" Marinette asked, twisting to get a better look at her partner. He looked as tired as she felt, but sleep had been out of the question for both of them.

"As ready as I'll ever be," Adrien said, very quietly. Plagg and Tikki exchanged worried looks, and Marinette bit her lip. Chat had always been much better at words than she was. Whereas her tongue twisted and stumbled around, he seemed to know what to say to make every situation better. It was frustrating to know that she couldn't comfort him the way he deserved. Then again, was there anything anyone could say that would make this situation better? Probably not.

"Okay," she said finally, deciding that now wasn't the time. "Tikki, spots on!"

"Plagg, claws out!"

It was very strange to see Chat standing in her bedroom and know that Adrien lay beneath the familiar mask. Ladybug held her hand out to him. Chat closed the distance between them without hesitation and took her hand. Rather than leave, she took a moment to pull him into a hug. Remembering her earlier desire to give him more hugs made her feel both sad and determined, because it turned out that Chat got even less hugs than she could have ever imagined. She hugged him tightly for as long as she dared before reluctantly letting go.

"You get the miracle box. I'll get everyone organized?" she said, touching his cheek. 

"Right. I'll meet you at the school," Chat said, and she nodded and stepped back, searching his eyes. Transforming and the hug seemed to have calmed him down a little, which was good. She wished she could say the same for herself.

They went their separate ways once they were outside. She, Nino, Adrien and Alya had talked it over and ultimately decided against inviting the police along. Adrien had pointed out that it was dangerous to have what were essentially civilians along when dealing with Hawkmoth and Mayura; if something went wrong, the battle could turn nasty very quickly and the Agreste mansion, while not small, would still be a confining space. Alya had promised to bring her phone along so that she could take some incriminating pictures just in case the word of Paris's superheroes wasn't enough. 

Ladybug landed just inside of the gates of the school a couple minutes later. Alya and Nino were already there, and so were Kim and Max. Seeing them helped to ease Ladybug's nerves and she smiled as she walked over. Before she could say anything though, Luka and Kagami emerged out of the shadows and came over. Right on their heels was Chloé, who crossed her arms as she approached and looked like she was trying very hard to pretend that she had accidentally stumbled upon their meeting as opposed to having received a direct invitation. Everyone looked expectantly at Ladybug, who swallowed.

"Thank you for coming. I appreciate it more than you know," she said softly. "We're just waiting for two more people."

"Wait, two?" Alya said, looking confused. "I know we're waiting for Chat, but all of the other miraculous holders are here."

"Uh, I've only used my miraculous like once," Kim said, half-raising his hand. 

"Me too," Max admitted, straightening his glasses. "I don't know how helpful we'll be."

"Hopefully, everything will go smoothly and Chat and I will do the bulk of the work. You're all here for back-up," Ladybug reassured them. "And if you don't want to be here, I understand. None of you are under any obligation to stay."

Chloé scoffed. "I want my miraculous. I'm not going anywhere."

"Of course we're going to help," Luka said, giving her a gentle smile. "Hawkmoth has put everyone in this city in danger. The least we can do is support you and Chat Noir now that you're finally getting the chance to take him down!"

Kagami nodded her agreement. "I would be honored to help," she said quietly.

"That's great and all, but who else are we waiting for?" Nino said.

"Uh... me?" 

Several people jumped, which had Ladybug biting back an amused smile. Alix, for all that she was loud and sassy, was very good at sneaking up on people. Judging by the smirk on her face, she had done it on purpose. Alya looked utterly baffled by the sight of her, and Ladybug could tell that Alya was running every akuma battle through her head in an effort to figure out where Alix had come into the picture. Of course, that was something Alya wouldn't be able to figure out no matter how much she thought about it: the future Bunnix had, for the most part, only interacted with Ladybug, Chat, and Alix.

"Alix? Wait, what?" Alya said finally.

"Dude, you never told me you had a miraculous!" Kim exclaimed.

Alix rolled her eyes at him. "That's because I technically didn't. My future self has one."

"Your... future self?" Max repeated, eyebrows furrowing.

"Alix is, or will be, the holder of the Rabbit miraculous. Much like the Snake miraculous, it deals with time," Ladybug said, figuring that she'd better explain before everyone got even more confused. Luka suddenly looked very interested in the conversation.

"The Rabbit miraculous, huh? I haven't heard of that one," Alya said, frowning.

Alix shrugged. "Like I said, I've technically never held it. I always knew that I would someday, but I didn't think it would happen so soon."

"From what I can tell, Bunnix is usually our last line of defence," Ladybug said. "I asked her to come here tonight as a precautionary measure. If something goes wrong, then Bunnix can go back in time to tell us not to do whatever we did that made things go wrong."

Nino squinted. "I hope that sentence made sense to you, because it didn't to me."

"I get it," Luka said, and of course he did. Ladybug shot him a smile.

"I get it too," Alix said. "And I can definitely do that." She looked small but determined, standing there with her hands shoved in her pockets.

"That's good, because we're going to need all hands on deck," Chat said as he dropped down next to Ladybug. He had a bunch of miraculous in his hands, which he quickly passed out: the Snake to Luka, the Dragon to Kagami, the Monkey to Kim, the Horse to Max, the Fox to Alya, the Turtle to Nino, the Rabbit to Alix, and lastly, the Bee to Chloé. Ladybug watched closely as Chloé affixed the Bee miraculous into her hair.

The street lit up with an array of brightly colored lights as the kwamis appeared. Over the general murmur, Ladybug couldn't hear what Chloé said to Pollen. But whatever it was made Pollen smile, and then Pollen flew up and kissed Chloé's cheek. Ladybug didn't think it was her imagination that Chloé's eyes looked a little shiny as Chloé brought her hands up and hugged Pollen close.

“Okay, everyone. You know what to do,” Ladybug said.

“Trixx, let’s pounce!”

“Waayz, shell on!”

“Sass, scales slither!”

“Longg, bring the storm!”

“Xuppu, showtime!”

“Pollen, buzz on!”

“Kaalki, full gallop!”

“Fluff, clockwise!”

Alix was last, her voice uncertain, but she was swallowed up in the same light as the rest. When the light faded, Ladybug was left looking at several different superheroes. Seeing them all in one place was a little overwhelming. She had never given out so many miraculous before, and suddenly she understood why Master Fu had always been apprehensive about letting too many miraculous be active at once.

But then Chat’s hand settled on her shoulder, giving her a comforting squeeze like he could sense exactly what was going through her head. He smiled at her and she smiled back, reminding herself that there were their friends. She trusted every single person here – even, she realized, Queen Bee. They were all united over a common goal, and they wouldn’t let her or Chat down.

“Okay,” she said. “Here’s what we’re going to do. Pegasus, you’re going to create a portal into the Agreste mansion.”

“The Agreste mansion? Wait, is Hawkmoth –” Ryuko’s eyes went wide.

“Hawkmoth is Gabriel Agreste,” Ladybug confirmed grimly. “And Mayura is Nathalie Sancoeur.”

“Oh my god,” Queen Bee said quietly, and Ladybug knew she was thinking of Adrien. She thought, glancing sideways at her partner, that it probably wouldn’t be long before Chat told Queen Bee the truth about his identity.

“Focus,” Ladybug said, clapping her hands lightly. “Queen Bee, Ryuko, Viperion, you’re with me to go after Hawkmoth. Rena Rouge, King Monkey and Carapace, you’re with Chat Noir and you’re going after Mayura. Bunnix and Pegasus, the two of you are going to wait in the hall. If something goes wrong, you’re our back-up. So Pegasus, make sure you feed up your kwami if you have to.”

“Right,” Pegasus said.

“Everyone ready?” Chat said. His grip on her shoulder now was tight; he didn’t like the idea of them splitting up, but it made the most sense. And there was no way in hell she was letting him go after Hawkmoth. Not after what had happened in the alternate timeline.

Hearing the agreeing rumbles, Ladybug took a deep breath. “Then Pegasus… do your thing.”

“Voyage!”


	27. Future

They emerged into the darkened front hall of the Agreste mansion and stood there for a moment, looking around. Ladybug had never been there before after hours, and consequently had never fully realized how creepy the room could be. It seemed large and empty. The picture of the Agreste family at the top of the staircase loomed over them; theIR smiles looked more hollow than ever.

Chat Noir moved first, walking towards the staircase. “Come on.”

His whisper got Ladybug moving, and she hurried to join him. She wasn’t familiar with the layout of the Agreste mansion, but Adrien had given her an outline. Apparently Nathalie had her own apartment that she usually stayed in overnight, but she did have a guest room in the mansion that she sometimes spent the night in – usually when an event ran over or she and Gabriel were up working late. More and more lately, she had been staying in that guest room. Adrien had bitterly remarked that now he understood why, as Gabriel probably wanted Nathalie to be close in case the Peacock miraculous was needed.

Their team slowly followed, until they were all clustered together at the top of the staircase. Chat and Ladybug exchanged looks before Chat squared his shoulders. He had to go left, whereas Ladybug had to go right. Rena, Carapace and King Monkey followed Chat, while Queen Bee, Ryuko and Viperion started to follow Ladybug. Then Rena stopped, ran up join Ryuko, and pushed something into Ryuko’s hands.

“Take pictures,” she whispered. “As many as you can.”

“Got it,” Ryuko said gravely, and Ladybug realized that Rena had given Ryuko a camera.

Ladybug glanced back just before she turned a corner and saw that Bunnix and Pegasus were huddled together in front of the photograph. Pegasus was going to wait as long as possible before feeding his kwami; if he had to detransform, he had been instructed to cover his head with a blanket that Carapace had given him. Chat had warned them all that the mansion had security cameras, so they had to be careful about what they said and did.

She quietly crept along the corridor, her three friends following on her heels, until she came to a large door at the very end of a hallway. Behind that door, Gabriel Agreste was, presumably, sleeping. Her heart thudding against her ribs, she turned to face Viperion and made a motion towards his wrist. Thankfully, he understood and put his fingers to his miraculous.

“Second Chance,” he murmured, and the countdown was on.

Queen Bee pulled out her stinger and whispered, “Venom.”

With the two of them prepared, Ladybug put her hand on the knob and pushed the door open. It swung inward soundlessly, revealing another huge room that was sparsely decorated. Gabriel’s bed was right in front of a large window. Ladybug stepped inside, taking a quick peek at the walls. The only decoration that she could see was a gigantic picture of Émilie Agreste on the opposite wall, so that it was the first thing Gabriel saw every morning and the last thing he saw each night.

A purple kwami rose from the head of Gabriel’s bed, staring at them with glossy grey eyes. The four of them froze, and Ladybug half-expected Nooroo to sound the alarm – they hadn’t thought to take the kwami into consideration. But Nooroo merely stared at them in silence, and after a moment Ladybug took another step forward. Breathing slowly and shallowly, she grabbed Queen Bee’s hand. They approached the bed together.

Later, Ladybug would remember the next few moments like her brain had been the one charged with taking snapshots.

There was Queen Bee lifting her stinger into the air.

There was Gabriel, his eyes opening and a look of pure rage on his face.

There was Gabriel's hand closing around Ladybug's neck like a vice as he opened his mouth to speak the words to transform.

There was Viperion, seizing Gabriel's hand in an effort to make him release Ladybug.

There was Queen Bee, swearing and stabbing her stinger into Gabriel with an expression of pure rage.

Then there was Gabriel collapsing backwards and freezing in place, and Viperion wrapping his arm around Ladybug's waist and bodily lifted her backwards, out of Gabriel's reach. Ladybug was gasping and coughing too hard to protest. Queen Bee huffed and grabbed the collar of Gabriel's shirt, wrenching it up. Beneath the fold of the cloth was the fabled Butterly miraculous. Nooroo vanished in a flash of pale grey violet light as Queen Bee plucked the miraculous off of Gabriel's shirt. She hid it in her palm and scowled down at Gabriel.

"I think we should tie him up," she announced. "Ryuko, put that camera down and help me. Viperion, take Ladybug out into the hallway."

Viperion obeyed, hurrying Ladybug out of the room before Ladybug had the breath to protest - and she would have, not because she cared about Gabriel Agreste, but because Queen Bee was in a _mood_ and that didn't bode well for Gabriel's survival. The whole point of this was to get Gabriel to face trial and eventually prison, and he had to be alive long enough for that to happen. Still, Ryuko was in the room with them, so she figured that Ryuko's sense of morality would let Gabriel come through this mostly intact.

Maybe.

"Are you okay?" Viperion asked, watching her worriedly.

"I'm fine," Ladybug said, rubbing her throat. Now that she had her breath back, she was physically fine. The suit had protected her from any lasting damage, though a grip like that would've done her civilian self some harm. But she thought it would be a long time before she stopped thinking about how it felt to have someone choke her like that while staring down at an expression of pure hatred.

He didn't look convinced, but nodded. "Should I call the police?"

"Yes please. And then you, Pegasus, Bunnix, Ryuko and King Monkey should go. The public doesn't really know many details about you and I'd prefer to keep it that way as much as we can," she said. "I'm going to check on Chat."

"Got it," Viperion said.

Ladybug turned away and pulled out her yoyo, using it to call Chat. As soon as he picked up, she said, "We've got Hawkmoth."

"And we've got Mayura," Chat replied. "Everything good?"

"Yup," Ladybug said, deciding that he didn't need to know about the whole choking thing right now. "Tell King Monkey to go and then meet us downstairs."

She hung up just in time to see Gabriel's door open. Queen Bee marched out, followed by Ryuko. Gabriel was slung over Ryuko's shoulder like a sack of bricks, a sight Ladybug would probably relish in the future. The paralyzation hadn't worn off yet, but his wrists and ankles had been tightly bound with what appeared to be strips of cloth from the bedspread. 

"What now?" Queen Bee asked.

"You should go too. You're going to transform back soon," Ladybug said.

Queen Bee frowned, looking like she wanted to argue, but surprisingly she didn't. All she said was, "Okay."

"Here, Ladybug." Ryuko passed Gabriel over, along with the camera. Ladybug inwardly shuddered at having Gabriel so close to her again, but tried not to show it. 

"Thank you. Let's meet up in the same place tomorrow night," she told them, and watched as the three of them escaped out the window at the end of the corridor. Then she made her way back towards the staircase.

Chat, Rena Rouge and Carapace were the only ones there, save for a bound and gagged Nathalie Sancoeur. Ladybug threw Gabriel down beside Nathalie and handed the camera over to Rena, who took it with a look of satisfaction. Then she stepped towards Chat. He was leaning against the wall, face shadowed as he looked away from his father, and her heart broke for him and how difficult this must have been. 

But knowing her partner the way she did, she knew that the only thing that could make this situation worse would have been for Adrien to not be involved at all, and have to be told the truth about his father after the fact.

The police were at the mansion within minutes. Ladybug squared her shoulders and went to meet them; Chat hung back, Rena and Carapace on either side of him, as Lieutenant Raincomprix walked into the mansion. He looked at Ladybug and then he looked at Gabriel and Nathalie, and the shocked expression on his face would've been amusing at any other time. As it was, Ladybug merely felt more tired than she had thought was possible.

"Lieutenant Raincomprix, we've caught Hawkmoth and Mayura," Ladybug said simply.

His eyes widened. "You mean to say -"

"Yes. Gabriel Agreste is Hawkmoth. Nathalie Sancoeur is Mayura," Ladybug said. "We were able to subdue them, thankfully without much of a fight." She touched her neck unconsciously. "I'll leave it to you to arrest them."

"I assume you have proof?" another officer said.

"We have pictures," Ladybug said.

"Your word is enough," Lieutenant Raincomprix said, glaring at the officer. "Put those two under arrest right now." The officers moved to obey, and Ladybug breathed a sigh of relief. Rena walked over and gave her the two cameras, which Ladybug handed to the lieutenant.

"These should help," she said. She knew Ryuko had gotten pictures of the Butterfly miraculous on Gabriel, and also pictures of his assault on Ladybug.

"Thank you, Ladybug," Lieutenant Raincomprix said, taking the cameras. "Regrettably, I have to ask you to leave. This place is now a crime scene. However, we will need to get your statement. Could you come to the station tomorrow?"

"Of course," Ladybug said, reaching back without looking. A hand slid into hers and gripped tightly: Chat. She took a step back as the lieutenant turned away, then turned into Chat. Carapace and Rena led the way out the door, with Ladybug and Chat right behind them.


	28. Team Leader

“We did it. We actually did it.” Ladybug tumbled through the window above her bed, landing on the soft covers. She lay there for a split second, staring up at the sky above out of pure elated relief, before Chat’s face appeared over the window. He followed her through, nimbly landing on the bed beside her.

“We really did,” he said, his expression somewhere between a smile and a frown. Like he didn’t know how to feel. Ladybug could relate to that, though she knew it was a thousand times worse for Chat. This had to be killing him inside. No matter how bad of a person Gabriel was, at the end of the day he was still Adrien’s father and Chat had just helped to send him to jail. She couldn’t imagine what that felt like.

“Are you okay?” she asked softly, smile fading as she touched his hand.

Chat let out a shuddering breath. “I think so. I just – it’s a lot, you know? And I don’t know what’s going to happen.” His voice softened, coming out smaller in a way that broke her heart. She slid her hand fully into his, lacing their fingers together.

“Whatever it is, we’ll face it together,” Ladybug said, softly but determinedly. “Okay? You’re not alone, Adrien.”

There were tears in his eyes when he nodded. “Okay. I guess the police will want to talk to me tomorrow too.”

“Probably, but luckily you’ve got a great alibi. You were alerted by Ladybug and Chat Noir, and they brought you here to your good friend Marinette’s house,” Ladybug said with a small smile. “And to prove it, I’m going to go wake up my parents right now and let them think that you’ve been here for a couple of hours but that you weren’t ready to see anyone else just yet.”

“Oh,” Chat said, surprised. “You think that’ll work?”

“Absolutely,” Ladybug said. “Spots off!”

“Are you both okay?” Tikki asked immediately, looking between them.

“We’re fine, Tikki,” Marinette said. 

“And you have the Butterfly and Peacock miraculous?” Tikki pressed.

“I have the Peacock,” Chat said, reaching into his pocket with his free hand.

“Ah shit,” Marinette muttered as realization struck. “The Butterfly is with Chloé.”

“What?” Chat exclaimed.

“Marinette!” Tikki said at the same time.

Marinette winced. “I’m sorry! She grabbed it off of Gabriel. I was –” She cut herself off.

“You were what?” Chat said, narrowing his eyes.

“Otherwise distracted,” she said, not meeting his gaze. “It’s fine, Tikki. Chloé has the Bee miraculous too. I’ll get the Butterfly from her tomorrow morning.”

“You’re sure you trust her to keep both all night?” Tikki said, folding her arms.

“Yeah, I do,” Marinette said, and quickly slipped down the ladder before either one of them could press her for more details. She scurried to the door and ran down, hoping that Chat would have the good sense to detransform before Marinette woke Tom and Sabine up. Otherwise, she was going to have a heck of a lot of explaining to do!

Her parents were both sound asleep – unsurprising, considering that it was almost 4am. But her father’s alarm would be going off shortly, so Marinette didn’t feel too badly about going into their room and waking them up. She pushed the door open and crept inside, pausing momentarily just to look at her parents. In their sleep, her papa had curled protectively around her maman. Marinette moved over to the bed.

“Maman, Maman wake up,” Marinette whispered, shaking her maman gently.

Sabine came awake with a start. “Marinette? What time is it? What’s wrong?”

“It’s Adrien,” Marinette said, the sound of her voice making her papa stir too. “Ladybug dropped him off on my balcony a couple of hours ago. They say… Maman, they’re saying that Gabriel Agreste is Hawkmoth.” She didn’t have to fake the quiver in her voice.

“What?” Sabine gasped. “Oh my – that poor boy.” She scrambled out of the bed and grabbed a robe, pulling it on as she ran out of the room.

Tom sat up. “Are you okay, Marinette?”

“I’m fine. Adrien is upset, though,” Marinette said. 

“I don’t doubt he is.” Tom shook his head and got up too, picking up his robe. He came around the bed and gave Marinette a hug. Marinette hadn’t realized how badly she needed that until just that moment, and hugged him back gratefully, sniffing as the overwhelming emotions of the night hit her hard. Tom just rubbed her back and kissed the top of her head.

Sabine had already bundled Adrien downstairs by the time Marinette and Tom got down there. Adrien was sitting at the kitchen table with a blanket wrapped around his shoulders. His face was tear-streaked, and Marinette quickly walked over to stand beside him. She wasn’t surprised when Adrien wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her into his lap, hiding his face against the back of her neck: Chat always got cuddly when he was upset.

“I’m going to make some tea,” Sabine said, bustling around the kitchen. “And then we’re all going to have some breakfast and figure this out.”

“Can Adrien stay with us, Maman?” Marinette asked, covering Adrien’s hands with her own. His fingers were freezing.

“Of course he can. We wouldn’t have it any other way,” Sabine declared. “You can stay with us for as long as you like, Dear.”

“Thank you,” Adrien whispered against Marinette’s back, sounding a little choked up. Perhaps he’d thought Sabine would say no. He clearly didn’t know Marinette’s maman very well if that was the case. Nothing fired Sabine up more than someone in need, particularly a child. Adrien’s aunt might now know it, but she would have a fight on her hands if she wanted to take Adrien away – especially once Sabine found out that Adrien didn’t really know his aunt. But maybe it wouldn’t come to that, and Adrien’s aunt wouldn’t care. His father certainly hadn’t.

Tom moved to help Sabine prepare something simple for breakfast. Marinette remained where she was, idly rubbing Adrien’s hands to try and warm them up. Her mind whirled with all of the things they’d have to do. As the team leader, it was on her to make the right decisions. She’d have to retrieve the miraculouses they had handed out, for one thing. Ladybug would need to go talk to the police. Chat was in no shape to come, but Rena or Carapace would glady fill in for him. And they’d need to search the Agreste mansion at some point for the spellbook, which couldn’t be allowed to fall into the wrong hands.

For now though, she moved to her own seat when Sabine brought cups of tea over. Tom brought fruit and cheese and day-old baked bread to have with honey and butter. A light weight settled onto Marinette’s lap, and she glanced down to see Plagg and Tikki there. She slipped Plagg some cheese and Tikki some bread dipped in honey, watching with amusement as Sabine fussed over Adrien and coaxed him into eating some food.

“Would it be alright if I showered?” Adrien asked quietly when they were finished.

“Of course. Tom, take Adrien and show him where everything is,” Sabine said. “Marinette and I will clean up.”

“Come on, Adrien,” Tom said, setting a gentle hand on Adrien’s shoulder. Only Marinette saw a streak of black dart over and vanish beneath Adrien’s blanket as they went.

Sabine sighed, resting her chin on her hand. “That poor boy. I’ve always thought his father was terrible, but this is a new low.”

“Adrien doesn’t deserve this,” Marinette said, and Sabine rested over to rest a hand on Marinette’s.

“No one does, Sweetheart. Sometimes people are just… very selfish,” she said quietly.

Marinette swallowed. Selfish certainly described Gabriel. “I don’t know for sure, but I think this has to do with Adrien’s mother,” she said, remembering what they had seen in the alternate timeline. She and Chat hadn’t talked about it in light of all the other revelations, but that had definitely been Émilie Agreste in that glass coffin. And Hawkmoth had been talking about saving her. That indecision was what had ultimately akumatized Chat.

As painful as it had been to watch that timeline, Marinette was grateful that they had. Not just because they’d been able to catch Hawkmoth, but because she had a sneaking suspicion that the police were going to find the body of Émilie in the basement of the mansion. Things could have easily played out the same way. Adrien would’ve been devastated. He still was, but at least he was forewarned.

“That could very well be,” Sabine said. “It’s… quite clear that Gabriel hasn’t handled the death of his wife well. I’m just sorry that Adrien is getting caught up in it. He’s such a nice boy.”

“He really is,” Marinette whispered, giving her maman a small smile. “Thanks, Maman. I told Adrien he could stay here without asking first.”

Sabine smiled. “I kind of figured that was the case. It’s fine. He’s just as well off here. I know that Alya’s and Nino’s families don’t really have space for him, and he can sleep just fine on your chaise lounge for now. I suspect that he’ll have to speak with the police today, so your papa or I can go with him.”

“Right. I’m sure Adrien would appreciate that,” Marinette said. It would be a good excuse for Chat not to show up with Ladybug too. Adrien couldn’t fight her on that; he couldn’t be in two places at once.

With one last pat to Marinette’s hand, Sabine stood. “We’ll get through this together,” she said. “Adrien will have our full support through whatever comes next. It will be okay, Marinette. You’ll see.”


	29. Flowers

Marinette clung to her maman’s words over the next several days. Those words gave her the strength to get through giving her statement to the police, and the courage to stand at Adrien’s side during Émilie’s funeral. As it turned out, there was nothing that the doctors could do for her: the casket had acted as a respirator, laced with what had to be some magical properties. Because the instant that it was opened, whatever it had been doing failed and Émilie stopped breathing.

Her death had been both quiet and peaceful, which was really the only solace that Adrien had as his mother was finally laid to rest. When it was over, and the crowds of people were drifting away, Adrien knelt and laid a bouquet of flowers on the fresh dirt. He stayed kneeling for a moment, fingers brushing the dirt. Marinette glanced over her shoulder and saw that her parents were standing at a distance, waiting for them but giving them privacy. So she knelt too, not caring that her dress was going to get grass stains, and leaned into Adrien's side.

"I never really questioned why all of Père's stories about her never lined up," Adrien said thickly. "I should have asked more questions."

"You couldn't have known, Adrien," Marinette said. She had lost count of how many times she'd told him that, and she knew she would continue to repeat it many times over in the weeks to come. Even then, it would be a long time before it really sank in.

"That doesn't make it any easier," he said quietly, and Marinette had no answer for that. Luckily, a familiar voice spoke up.

"Adrien?"

Marinette turn to see Alya, Nino and Chloé standing right behind them. Automatically, her eyes darted to the necklace around Alya's throat, the bracelet on Nino's wrist, and the comb in Chloé's hair. It was strange to see them wearing their miraculous, but it was good too. The night after Gabriel was arrested, Ladybug had retrieved the Dragon, Rabbit, Monkey, Horse, Snake, and Butterfly miraculouses. She had conveniently forgotten to collect the Fox, Turtle and Bee. 

"Hi guys," Adrien said, attempting a smile that fell flat. He stood up and promptly received hugs from Alya, Nino and Chloé, one right after the other. 

"You okay?" Alya whispered to Marinette, moving over to stand beside her and linking their arms together.

"Getting there," Marinette whispered back, watching Adrien and Chloé embrace. So far as they knew, Chloé was still in the dark about their identities. But sometimes Marinette wondered if Chloé knew more than she was letting on. Chloé Bourgeois was many things, but she was not stupid. When she wasn't being a petty, spoiled brat, Chloé saw and understood a lot more than most people gave her credit for.

"Do you think you'll be coming back to school on Monday?" Nino asked Adrien.

"Probably. I don't want to get too far behind," Adrien said, and honestly even if he missed two months of school it was very unlikely that he would fall behind - Adrien was too smart for that. Yet Marinette could also appreciate where he was coming from. The urge to get back to a normal life struck at the strangest of times. 

Plus, she knew that Adrien wanted to move on as much as he could before the court case. It would be a while before that happened, as evidence was currently being gathered against both Gabriel and Nathalie. Not only was Gabriel facing serious jail time, he was also being sued by both the city of Paris and multiple people who had been akumatized. By the end of it all, Marinette wasn't sure how much of the Agreste fortune would be left for Adrien beyond what was already legally his. She wasn't sure that Adrien cared, and perhaps rightfully so. 

"That would be good. Class is so boring without you, Adrikins," Chloé said dramatically, and Adrien's smile was genuine this time.

"I'm sure it's not that bad," he said, but it was obvious that he appreciated the sentiment. Marinette hid a sigh. That really clinched it, didn't it? She was going to have to figure out how to let go of what had happened in the past between her and Chloé, because Adrien cared too much about Chloé to ever let go of her. And at this point, Adrien had lost enough. She and Chloé would probably never be friends, but they'd have to peacefully co-exist for Adrien's sake.

God, the things she did this for this boy.

Adrien turned and looked down at his mother's grave again. His expression was solemn, and if Marinette hadn't known him as well as she did, she wouldn't have had a clue what he was thinking. Because she did know him, she knew that he was filled with regret. Regret that he had lost the chance to say goodbye to his mother, regret that he had already mourned her long before she was buried, perhaps even regret that Hawkmoth's plan hadn't worked and that he would never see her again. Not that he would have wanted Hawkmoth to win, but love could be a slippery slope like that.

She reached out and took his hand. Adrien looked over at her, startled. Marinette gave him a small smile, intertwining their fingers. She wanted him to know that he wasn't alone, that he would never be alone again, and it seemed that Adrien got the message because he smiled back and squeezed her hand. The coming weeks were going to be hard on him. He'd need as much support as he could get. Luckily, he had Marinette, their friends, and Marinette's parents. It wasn't as much as he deserved, but they were all going to do everything they could for him.

"Adrien, Marinette!"' Sabine called. "Are you ready?"

"Just give me a minute?" Marinette said, letting go of Adrien's hand. He gave her a puzzled look, but Alya stepped forward and linked her arm through Adrien's this time.

"Come on, Sunshine. I'm pretty sure you've lost weight since I last saw you. You need some pastries," Alya declared.

Nino's eyes lit up. "I can get on board with that."

The two of them hustled Adrien away. Marinette turned to look down at Émilie's grave. The flowers that Adrien had set down seemed lonely. She knelt down again and carefully adjusted the bouquet until it was nestled right up against the gravestone, where it would hopefully be protected from the wind.

"You didn't take the Bee back. Does that mean you trust me now?"

Marinette froze, and then wondered how she could've been so dumb as to forget that Chloé was there. In the span of time it took her to straighten up, she quickly weighed her options and finally went with, "What?"

"Oh, don't play stupid," Chloé said tiredly. "I know who you are. It was so obvious after that night."

"What?" Marinette said again, turning around in surprise.

For once, Chloé didn't sneer, just regarded Marinette steadily. "Chat. I've never been around him much before, but he knew exactly where to go in the Agreste mansion. The way he climbed those steps, it was exactly like Adrien," she said, quieter now. "And the look on his face when he saw the photograph at the top of the stairs... it had to be him. Which makes you Ladybug. You can deny it if you want to, but I won't believe you."

So much for the miraculous magic. Tikki had said that it would take something _really_ obvious for someone to be able to break through. It made Marinette wonder just how well Chloé knew Adrien. She had always assumed that they weren't really friends based on how aggressive Chloé could be and how uncomfortable Adrien could get, but then again they had known each other for literally years. Chloé was the only person that Gabriel Agreste had never turned away from his son. So how many times had Chloé watched Adrien walked up those stairs with that same slump to his shoulders?

"Fine," Marinette conceded at last, crossing her arms over her chest. "Yeah, okay, you're right. So what?"

"So can I keep my miraculous?" Chloé said, and Marinette cocked her head.

"That's it? No threats to out us unless you get your way?" she asked, genuinely curious.

"No," Chloé said.

"Because you know, if you stay as Queen Bee, you can never admit to anyone that you actually are Queen Bee," Marinette went on. "For that matter, it would probably be safest for you to assume a different identity. Yes." She nodded. "You'll have to pick out a new name for yourself and ask Pollen to change your outfit. Actually, Rena Rouge and Carapace will probably have to do the same."

Chloé didn't look thrilled by the news, but all she said was, "Okay."

"And if you ever told anyone who you were again, that would be immediate grounds for losing your miraculous," Marinette pressed.

"I have no one I care to tell," Chloé said. She was trying desperately hard to sound stoic, but fell short thanks to a slight quiver in her voice. In spite of Marinette's best efforts, that quiver got to her. Last time Chloé had outed herself in a bid to impress her mother, and all that had done was make Audrey think even less of her - if that was possible. 

"Then yes," Marinette said, hoping she wouldn't regret this. Bottom of the line was, Chloé was good at being the Bee miraculous holder. Taking away the Bee miraculous wasn't going to erase the fact that Chloé had figured out who Ladybug and Chat Noir were. At least this way, Marinette would be able to keep a closer eye on Chloé. Or at least, that's what she told herself. Her decision had nothing to do with the huge smile that spread across Chloé's face.

"Thank you, Marinette," Chloé said, her blue eyes bright.

"You're welcome," Marinette said stiffly. "Papa baked a cake this morning. Would you like to come and have a piece? For Adrien's sake."

Chloé looked at her curiously, but finally nodded. "For Adrien's sake."


	30. Balcony

Marinette hummed under her breath, her attention solely focused on the umbrella in front of her. Her paintbrush moved with slow, careful strokes, smoothing the orange paint onto the fabric. Eyebrows furrowed with concentration, she set her brush down and selected a smaller one. She dipped it into the black paint and leaned down again, filling in one of the eyes.

“Mari? You up there?” Adrien’s voice floated up into the room a moment before his head followed. He smiled when he saw her and she smiled back before turning back to her work.

“Just give me one sec,” she said, moving the brush to paint the other eye. Adrien climbed the rest of the way up and moved over to join her, peering over her shoulder. His breath was warm against the back of her neck and she sternly forbid herself from shivering.

“Is that for Alya?” Adrien asked.

“Yup. I decided to do a whole set of umbrellas,” Marinette replied, sitting back in her chair. She examined her work critically, but found no flaws – yet. 

“It’s adorable. Alya’s gonna love it.”

“I hope so.” Marinette gently lifted the umbrella fully onto her desk so that she could stand up. Her upper body ached from being bent over in one position for so long, but painting on fabric required a close eye. Especially when you were working with as delicate a fabric as what covered an umbrella. One wrong twitch and the fox kits Marinette had meticulously sketched out would be ruined.

“I know so,” Adrien said. He cleared his throat. “So, my aunt called me today.”

Marinette paused in the midst of picking up her brushes. “Oh yeah?” She hoped he couldn’t hear the nerves in her voice. Amélie and Félix had been at Émilie’s funeral, but they had both kept their distance and neither of them had spoken to Adrien. 

“She asked me if I wanted to come stay with them,” Adrien said, backing up and sitting down on the chaise. 

“And what did you say?” Marinette asked, biting her lip, suddenly glad that he couldn’t see her face.

Because she would understand if Adrien wanted to go and be with his family, of course she would. Amélie and Félix were the only family that Adrien had left. She would never begrudge him that choice. But Amélie also lived in London. That meant Adrien would have to leave Paris. The thought of losing Chat was enough to make Marinette’s eyes water. She fumbled with her paintbrushes and swore as she promptly dropped them, splattering paint all over her desk – though thankfully, not on Alya’s umbrella.

“Hey.” Adrien was there before she could do much more than blink, catching her hands in his. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” Marinette whispered, unable to look him in the eyes. 

“My Lady, I know you better than that.” His voice was warmly amused. “I said no.”

Her eyes snapped up to meet his. “What?”

“I don’t want to go to London,” Adrien said softly. “I don’t even know Tante Amélie. My mother used to talk about her sometimes, but I can count on one hand the number of times she visited when I was a child. And she and Père didn’t get along so, after my mother died, she never came around. She’s a stranger to me.” He rubbed his thumbs over Marinette’s knuckles.

“You could get to know them,” Marinette pointed out.

“I could, but I’m not sure I want to. Félix is…” Adrien paused, as though choosing his words carefully, before finally going with, “Difficult. You saw how much trouble he caused last time he was here. Something tells me that it would be even worse if I went to live with them.”

Marinette had to give him that one. Félix Graham de Vanily had purposely tried to ruin things with Adrien’s friends: they had figured everything out in the end, but for a little while there Adrien’s name had been mud. She also hadn’t appreciated the way he’d acted with Ladybug. It was honestly a wonder that Chat hadn’t punted him straight off the building. She could appreciate why Adrien had no desire to spend more time with Félix.

“Besides, if I left Paris, that means I have to give up the Black Cat miraculous… and you.” Adrien lifted her hands to his mouth and pressed a gentle kiss to the back of each hand. “How could I leave Plagg behind? That night that Master Fu took him because of the sentimonster was horrible; he might be a little shit, but Plagg has stuck with me through so much.”

“Hey!” Plagg objected, poking his head out of Adrien’s shirt pocket. “I resent that!”

In spite of her fluttering heart, Marinette had to smile. “He’s not saying anything that isn’t true,” she told Plagg.

Plagg sniffed. “That’s a matter of opinion,” he muttered.

“It’s really not,” Adrien said. “Besides, you told me yourself that you didn’t want to have to pick another Chat Noir.”

“Really?” Tikki said from where she was curled up on Marinette’s bed. She had obviously been trying to give Marinette and Adrien some privacy, but now she sat up to look at Plagg with amusement.

“Th-that’s just because Adrien can buy me the good cheese!” Plagg sputtered.

“ _Sure_ it is,” Tikki said with a knowing gleam in her eyes. “It’s not at _all_ because you _love_ your kitten.”

“Of course not,” Plagg said, sticking his nose in the air. “I have standards and not everyone can afford them, that’s all.”

“Depending on what happens, I may not be able to afford them either,” Adrien said dryly.

“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” Plagg said, squirming out of Adrien’s pocket. He swiftly flew up to tackle a giggling Tikki to the bed. Tikki managed to squirm free and fled out onto the balcony, with Plagg in hot pursuit.

Marinette shook her head at the antics of their kwamis and turned back to Adrien. “I would hate to have to chose another Chat Noir,” she confessed. “I don’t think I could do it. I’d probably have to retire the miraculous.” In fact, she knew she couldn’t. Any other Chat Noir would constantly be compared to, and come up wanting next to, Adrien. That wasn’t a fair burden to put on anyone.

“I know it shouldn’t, but it makes me happy to hear that,” Adrien admitted, his eyes brightening. He liked knowing that he was irreplaceable, she’d noticed. It was something she hadn’t told him enough.

“So… you’re staying then?” Marinette said, just to be sure.

Adrien nodded. “I already talked to Sabine and Tom. They both said it was fine with them. They were talking to Tante Amélie on the phone when I came up. Of course, that depends on whether you’re okay with continuing to share your bedroom.”

“Of course I am,” Marinette said immediately. She had already put some thought into how the room could be best rearranged to suit them both. Her chaise lounge would need to go, and in its place they could move the two desks that currently sat beneath her bed. A bed for Adrien could go in under Marinette’s bed, with curtains to give him some privacy. She was more than willing to sacrifice one of her desks to him; she knew he wouldn’t mind if she occasionally appropriated them both for design work.

His face broke out into a dazzling smile. “I’d hoped you would say that. I didn’t want you to feel like I was enroaching on your space.”

“Not at all. It might be a little cramped sometimes, but we can make it work,” Marinette said confidently. There would be days where it was hard, but Sabine had been right when she said that Alya’s and Nino’s families really didn’t have the space for Adrien. Chloé did, but Marinette had the feeling that Adrien would be a lot more comfortable here.

“I think so too,” Adrien said. “Marinette… do you know why I asked you out a few weeks ago?”

The question was so unexpected that, for a moment, Marinette just blinked at him. Then heat rushed to her face. “Wh-what?”

Adrien’s cheeks turned pink too. He lowered his head slightly, eyes darting away from her. “That day… that day I first asked you to have lunch with me. We walked to the café under your pretty umbrella. You remember?”

“Of course I do. How could I forget?” Marinette said. Remembering how confused she’d been at the time made her want to laugh at how little her past self had known or understood. She and Adrien had grown _a lot_ in the span of several weeks. Strange how much could change in such a short amount of time.

“I was nervous,” Adrien said.

“I was too,” Marinette whispered. She wasn’t wholly sure where he was going with this. They had agreed to talk about it after seeing the alternate timeline, but of course then the whole issue with Gabriel and Nathalie had come up. Love and romance had been the furthest thing from either of their minds. She didn’t know what it meant that Adrien was bringing it up now.

He cleared his throat. “I thought you might say no to going on a date with me back then.”

“I would never do that.”

“Really?” he asked, and his uncertainty made her nod. At that, Adrien chuckled. “Gosh, I sure have been stupid.”

“What do you mean?” Marinette asked, confused.

“The whole reason I asked Marinette out,” he said ruefully, “was because I was convinced that Ladybug had a boyfriend.”


	31. Miracle Box

It took Marinette a moment to realize and understand what he'd said. "Wait, what?" she said, stunned. "You thought Ladybug had a boyfriend?"

"Well, yeah. You kept talking about this guy you were interested in," Adrien said. "And then... after a while, you stopped mentioning him. So I figured that meant you had started dating him, but that you didn't want to tell me because you knew it would break my heart." He continued to look away from her, not meeting her eyes. 

Marinette supposed that made sense, since it did sound like something she would do, but... "How did that lead you to asking Marinette out?"

"You can blame Plagg for that, and Nino. The two of them were convinced that I had a crush on you... and I realize now that they weren't wrong." Adrien mumbled that last part, but Marinette still heard. More heat rushed to her face, until she was certain that her cheeks had turned the color of her Ladybug suit, and she was relieved that Adrien wasn't looking at her to see it.

"They weren't?" she asked in a whisper.

Adrien shook his head. "N-no. I don't think so. I was just so blinded by Ladybug that I couldn't pay attention to anyone else. But then, when I realized that I really had no chance with her, I thought that maybe there was some truth to what Plagg and Nino said and I should ask you out..." He paused, looking horrified, and quickly shook his head. "Wait, that came out wrong! I didn't ask you out as a second choice, Marinette. I really did like you! Do like you! I just – I called you our ‘every Ladybug’ for god’s sake, and I didn’t know if liked you for _you_ or for the Ladybug qualities I saw in you, and I - I just had my heart set on Ladybug because -"

"Because you saw Ladybug that way first," Marinette finished. Maybe some girls would have taken offence to that, but how could she when she had been feeling exactly the same way about Adrien over Chat Noir? Besides, she and Ladybug were the same person. Adrien had been in love with her and hadn’t even known it, and vice versa. They’d loved each other all along. 

"Exactly." Adrien sighed. "And now..."

"And now," Marinette said slowly, reaching out to take his hands again. "I get to say my part about this boy I've had a crush on for what feels like forever."

"Yeah?" Adrien said, finally meeting her eyes. But he also braced himself, like he was preparing himself for a metaphorical blow. Marinette puzzled over the reaction for a few seconds before the reason why dawned on her. 

Luka. Of course it was Luka. Everyone, Luka included, had seemed to think that something was going to happen between he and Marinette. She had clarified that nothing would happen to Alya, Juleka, Mylène, Rose, and Alix, but she had never bothered doing so with Adrien because she hadn't thought there was a point. At first because she'd been convinced that Adrien and Kagami were dating, and then because she'd been unsure about Adrien in the wake of the alternate time, and _then_ because of her growing feelings for Chat Noir. 

"It was you. It was you all along. Civilian you, I mean,” Marinette said, deciding that there was no point in beating around the bush. She and Adrien had been dancing around each other for the better part of two years and Marinette was tired of it.

Adrien's jaw dropped. "M-me?!"'

"That's right. I like Luka, but he's always been just a friend. And Chat Noir..." It was Marinette's turn to sigh.

"Chat Noir?" Adrien prompted.

"He was always my dear friend, but I met Adrien first and fell in love. I wouldn’t let myself see Chat that way. But then... you're always there for me. You always support me, whether it's telling me what I need to hear or helping me deal with being a guardian and the miracle box..." Marinette blinked hard against the tears that inexplicably stung her eyes. "I couldn't be Ladybug without you. You're everything to me, Adrien. _Chaton_. It's always been you. I just didn't know it."

Suddenly, Adrien was pulling her forward and letting go of her hands to wrap her up in a huge hug. Marinette hugged him back as tightly as she could, burying her face in his shoulder. She was grateful for the chance to pull herself together, having not expected that she would get so emotional. Her heart was racing and even her hands were shaking a bit. 

"I love you, Mari," Adrien said softly.

Marinette closed her eyes. "I love you too," she admitted, and it felt so good to say it out loud and know that she was saying it to both Adrien and Chat Noir. That she didn't, and would never have to, choose between them. Thank goodness she had never started dating Luka, and that Adrien had never seriously dated Kagami. Things would have been even more of a mess if they'd had to worry about the feelings of anyone else.

Adrien gave a shaky laugh. "I never thought I'd hear you say that."

"It's the truth," Marinette said, pulling back to look at him. "And I really do want you to stay. I don't know what I would do without you."

"Obviously you'd have a severe lack of puns in your life," Adrien said, a small smile tugging at his lips.

"Between you and my papa, I've had enough puns to last me a lifetime," Marinette said. "But I guess there's always room for a few more."

He grinned at that and reached up to brush a stray curl off of her forehead. "That's good to hear, because apparently sometimes I pun in my sleep."

"... I changed my mind. You can sleep up on the balcony."

"Aww, My Lady. You wouldn't put your kitty out in the cold, would you?" Adrien said, giving her an exaggerated pout complete with huge, glossy green puppy eyes. Marinette steeled herself against the sight. Adrien's eyes were even better than Manon's and that was really saying something. She could never let him know just how weak she was to that look, or she was in for a hell of a time.

"I absolutely would," she said, though judging by his widening smile she didn't sound very convincing.

"I don't believe you," Adrien said. "I don't even think you'd put me outside if I crawled into bed with you."

Marinette's cheeks burned again. "Yes, I would!" she said loudly.

"Sure you would," Adrien agreed, a twinkle in his eyes, and Marinette just knew that one day soon she was going to wake up in the morning to find a cat in her bed - and it wouldn't be Plagg. She couldn't decide if the thought was mortifying or something she desperately wanted. Or both. Yeah, it was definitely both.

"I would," Marinette said for the third time, crossing her arms over her chest. Yet she couldn't push away the niggling thought that they might not even need a second bed for Adrien. Ladybug and Chat had fallen asleep together a few times, usually during patrol after a long couple of days of akuma battles or when both of them were short on sleep because of busy civilian lives. Though sleeping on concrete or propped up on a beam on the Eiffel Tower wasn't terribly comfortable, she couldn't deny that it had always been really nice to wake up and find Chat beside her or curled up against her. It was the only time she could honestly say she never had nightmares.

If the same could be said for Adrien, maybe _she_ would be the one inviting him into her bed. She didn’t think her parents would mind if they knew it was just for comfort. Adrien had been sleeping poorly ever since his father was outed as Hawkmoth, but his bad dreams had increased since the funeral. No one could ignore the deepening circles under his eyes. Maybe tonight...

"Adrien! Marinette! Could you come down here?" Sabine called before Adrien could respond.

"Coming, Maman," Marinette replied, but she caught Adrien's arm before he could turn away. He tensed a bit, looking at her in confusion: he was still too used to how life had been with Gabriel. Tom and Sabine wouldn't penalize them if they took a couple of minutes, whereas Gabriel would've been furious that Adrien was 'wasting his time' or some nonsense like that.

"What is it?" Adrien asked, his expression changing to curiousity the longer she looked at him.

"I love you," Marinette said again, softer this time, and wrapped one of her hands around the back of Adrien's neck. She pulled him in and kissed him. Adrien, to his credit, recovered quickly from the shock and kissed her back.

"I love you too," he said when they parted, and she didn't think she was imagining the glistening in his eyes. It had probably been years since anyone said that to him. Marinette immediately resolved to say those words to him every day. No, multiple times a day. Adrien deserved that and more.

"Now we can go," she said, leading him over to the door. They clattered down the steps, where Sabine was waiting with a smile.

"It's official. We've worked it all out with your aunt, Adrien. You're staying," she said, hugging Adrien.

"You're sure it won't be too much?" Adrien asked worriedly even as he snuggled into the hug. "I have some money in my account, I could -"

"Absolutely not!" Sabine said instantly. "That money is for your future and I don't want you touching it. Don't you worry about a thing, Honey. Amélie, Tom and I have it covered. Okay?"

"Okay," Adrien said, relaxing. "Thank you."

"It's no problem at all." Sabine kissed his forehead, winked at Marinette over Adrien's head, and let him go. "Having said that, if you're bored and wanted to help in the bakery, I wouldn't say no."

"Sure!" Adrien said, bounding past her and down the steps.

Sabine smirked at Marinette. "Your father is going to be so happy to have a son-in-law who's taking over the bakery."

" _Maman_!" Marinette hissed. "He might hear you!" 

"I'm just saying," Sabine said, giggling, and went after Adrien. Marinette groaned and pressed her hands to her hot cheeks, yet she couldn't help the fond smile that crossed her face or the way her heart fluttered in her chest at the thought of it. Three kids, a hamster, and a husband who was taking over the family business? She could get behind that. She grinned and followed her partner and maman downstairs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And so that wraps up Marinette March. Thank you for all the kudos and comments! Stick with me, as Adrinette April begins tomorrow and I promise you're gonna want to be a part of it.

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on [tumblr](https://tsuki-chibi.tumblr.com/).


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